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Photo,  by  IV.  J.  Root,  Chicago. 


"IAN  MACLAREN" 
(The  Rev.  Dr.  John  Watson). 


A  TYPE  OF  THE  NORMAL  LOOK,  FEATURES  AND  CONTOUR  OF  HEAD. 


Crime  and  Criminals- 


BY 


u. 


u 


J.   SANDERSON    CHRISTISON,   M.    D. 

Formerly  of  the  New  York  City  Asylums  for  the  Insane,  Black- 
well's  Island  and  Ward's  Island,  Etc.     Author  of 
"Normal  Mind,"  "The  Evidence  of 
Insanity,"  "Drink  and 
Disease,"  Etc. 


^    OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CHICAGO 

THE    W.  T.  KEENER   COMPANY 

1897 


GENERAL 


COPYRIGHTED    1897 

BY 
J.   S.   CHRISTISON. 


PREFACE. 


PREFACE. 


Last  winter  I  contributed  a  series  of  articles  to 
the  Chicago  Tribune  under  the  caption  of  "Jail 
Types,"  which  were  so  favorably  noticed,  both 
in  Europe  and  America,  that  my  friends  have 
urged  their  appearance  in  book  form.  With 
some  typographical  corrections,  the  articles  are 
here  presented  in  their  original  text,  with  a  num- 
ber of  additional  sketches. 

While  they  do  not  constitute  a  systematic  treatise 
on  the  subject  of  criminology,  they  present  the 
points  of  most  importance  in  a  form  and  style 
intended  to  attract  and  interest  the  general  reader, 
who  will  find  much  to  reflect  upon  in  the  line  of 
duty  as  a  member  of  society  at  large. 

The  subject  necessarily  contains  unpleasant 
things,  but  which  must  be  frankly  discussed  to  be 
understood  and  properly  dealt  with,  for  they  are 
matters  of  much  public  and  private  concern.  The 
cases  here  given  are  warnings  not  only  to  the 
prudish  and  prurient  minded,  but  also  to  the  young 


198463 


4  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

and  the  old;  to  parent  and  child;  to  the  citizen  and 
to  the  State. 

The  use  of  photographs  does  injustice  to  nobody, 
and  can  harm  none,  while  they  add  distinctness  to 
the  text. 

It  will  be  observed  that  I  make  three  essentially 
different  classes  of  delinquents,  viewed  from  a  psy- 
chologic standpoint,  viz. :  the  insane  (defective  in 
reason);  the  moral  paretic  (defective  in  self  control); 
and  the  criminal  proper  (defective  in  conscience). 
This  classification  I  first  presented  by  an  article  in 
the  Chicago  Law  Journal,  of  April,  1896,  which 
article  was  copied  by  the  Law  Times,  of  London, 
England. 

.  For  those  who  wish  to  give  the  subject  a  more 
extended  study,  I  hope  soon  to  present  it  in  a 
systematic  form,  covering  the  whole  field  in  its 
anatomic,  physiologic,  psychologic  and  sociologic 
bearings. 

I  am  greatly  indebted  to  Mr.  Wm.  A.  Pinkerton 
for  the  use  of  photographs,  and  to  Dr.  E.  S.  Talbot 
for  the  use  of  his  plates  of  abnormal  jaws. 

J.  Sanderson  Christison, 

215  Dearborn  Avenue,  Chicago, 
June,  1897. 


CONTENTS. 


Frontispiece — 

A  type  of  the  normal  look,  features  and  contour  of  head. 

Preface ^^. 3-4 

Introductory .^B 7-  9 

An  Epileptic — crime,  arson 9-12 

Last  Report  of  Crime  in  New  York 12 

Types  of  the  Degenerate  Jaw 14 

Types  of  the  Insane,  the  Moral  Paretic  and  the  Criminal  Proper — 

crime,  murder 15-22 

An  Alcoholic  Somnambule— crime,  larceny 23 

Prendergast,  the  Assassin 27 

Cases  VII  and  VIII — crime,  provoked  murder 31 

Brain  of  the  Beaver 36 

A  Negro  "  Hold-up  "—crime,  murder 37 

B'rains  of  an  Idiot  and  a  Sheep 42 

Sexual  Perverts. ...    , 43 

A  Female  Inebriate 51 

Degeneracy  Among  the  Negroes •. 55 

A  Female  Colored  Thief  and  Opium  Fiend 56 

A  Female  Thief  and  Inebriate 61 

An  Aged  Female  Shop-lifter 63 

A  Young  Female  Shop  lifter , 62. 

Brain  of  a  Magyar  Robber . .  72 

A  Young  Pickpocket 73 

A  Professional  Safe-blower  79 

A  Young  Burglar 85 

Baron  Shinburn — the  Prince  of  Burglars ....  86 

A  "Bank  Sneak" 88 

Two  Unruly  Prisoners 89 

(5) 


O  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

Brain  of  a  Servian  Murderer 92 

Crime's  Cause  and  Cure — A  General  Consideration  of 93-101 

A  Suggestion  on  Prison  Treatment 104 

The  Brain  Centres 108 

The  Brain  Convolutions no 

Brains  of  Non-criminals 111-113 

Brains  of  Criminals 114-115 

Ears 117-118 


INDEX   TO    LEADING    QUESTIONS. 

The  Purpose  of  the  Inquiry 7^9 

Method  of  Examination 67-68 

Classification  of  Delinquents 15 

Insanity 15-18 

Moral  Palsy 20,  31-32 

Criminality '79 

Heredity  as  a  Factor  in  Crime 23,  93-95 

Loss  of  Parents  as  a  Factor  in  Crime 96 

The  School  as  a  Factor  in  Crime 98 

The  State  as  a  Factor  in  Crime 99-103 

The  Treatment  of  Crime 104 


INTRODUCTORY 


Crimes  are  now  nearly  five  times  as  numerous  as  f^orty 
years  ago,  according  to  the  statistics  of  incarcerated 
criminals  in  the  United  States.  How  is  this  to  be  ac- 
counted for  ?  How  much  is  due  to  the  machinery  of 
our  penal  system,  and  how  much  to  other  conditions  in 
our  civilization  ? 

It  is  quite  evident  the  question  demands  serious  and 
systematic  consideration  on  the  part  of  those  in  author- 
ity and  also  on  the  part  of  the  public,  which  must  co- 
operate in  all  measures  for  its  protection  and  well-being. 
Like  every  other  subject,  it  must  be  given  attention — 
every  aspect  must  be  viewed  which  has  a  bearing  on  the 
individual,  both  as  an  animal  and  as  a  responsible  being. 

The  medical  aspect  of  crime  has  of  late  been  receiving 
a  considerable  and  increasing  consideration  on  the  part 
of  physicians  and  other  humanitarians,  on  account  of 
the  frequency  with  which  crime  is  associated  with  mani- 
fest bodily  or  brain  disease.  Indeed,  the  more  the  ques- 
tion is  studied  the  more  frequent  is  crime,  at  least  in  the 
habitual  form  or  ' '  repeater"  cases,  seen  to  be  a  disease, 
or  rather  a  symptom  of  disease,  and  where  it  cannot  be 
exactly  regarded  as  such,  it  is  the  result  of  bad  or  defect- 
ive education. 

This  does  not  argue  in  favor  of  irresponsibility,  for,  as 
individuals,  as  communities,  or  as  states,  we  are,  in  one 


v 


8  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

way  or  another,  responsible  for  every  disease  that  flesh 
is  heir  to.  Science  shows  that  responsibihty  often  runs 
in  intricate  and  far-reaching  hnes,  and  where,  on  a  su- 
perficial view,  we  would  centralize  it  in  the  individual,  a 
better  understanding  distributes  it  to  more  than  one  and 
often  to  many  persons. 

With  prison  inmates  the  forms  of  head  and  the  ex- 
ipressions  of  face  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  will  be 
seen  to  differ  in  some  respects  from  the  normal  type, 
conditions  which  indicate  something  in  the  possibilities 
or  dispositions  of  their  possessors.  They  may  be  in- 
herited or  acquired,  while  education  either  runs  counter 
or  adds  to  the  stock.  From  all  this  we  perceive  a  rational 
basis  for  charity,  and  can  understand  why  it  is  justly  the 
chief  of  all  Christian  graces. 

As  going  to  indicate  something  of  the  extent  to  which 
disease  is  concomitant  and  causative  to  crime,  official 
reports  show  that  no  less  than  one-third  of  all  convicted 
murderers  in  England  are  sooner  or  later  adjudged  insane 
after  conviction.  In  New  York  state  the  proportion  is 
one-sixth,  a  difference  not  due  to  personal  factors.  This 
allows  the  presumption  that  insanity  existed  in  these 
prisoners  prior  to  their  conviction,  because  insanity  is  so 
extremely  slow  and  insidious  in  its  development  into  so 
gross  a  form  as  to  be  recognized  beyond  a  doubt,  except 
when  it  is  due  to  certain  accidental  causes. 

It  is  proposed  to  present  a  series  of  criminal  types  in 
brief  description  of  the  individual  character  and  past 
history.  While,  for  obvious  reasons,  many  particulars 
will  be  omitted,  none  will  be  left  out  that  are  essential  to 


CASE  I.  9 

the  purpose  of  the  description.  Each  description  will 
be  given  as  the  product  of  an  examination  of  two  or 
more  hours'  length  made  in  private  and  supplemented 
by  other  inquiries.  The  articles  will  be  simply  illustra- 
tive and  somewhat  explanatory  in  a  general  way  and  the 
types  will  be  selected  from  various  institutions. 

CASE  I— EPILEPSY— ARSON. 

The  first  case  considered  is  that  of  an  epileptic,  and 
arson  is  the  crime  charged. 

Epilepsy  has  many  causes  and  many  forms.  Some 
persons  have  the  convulsions  with  little,  if  any,  apparent 
mental  disturbance,  while  in  others  the  nervous  explo- 
sions, so  to  speak,  produce  a  much  greater  effect  on  the 
mind  and  may  even  take  the  form  of  furor  or  insanity. 

At  the  Elmira  Reformatory  1 1  per  cent,  of  the  prison-0 
ers  had  epilepsy  or  insanity  quite  strong  in  their  family/ 
histories   and    many   more   had    bad    heredity   in    other 
respects. 

The  following  is  a  type  of  the  most  unfortunate  kind 
of  unfortunates — those  who  are  liable  to  commit  crime. 
They  are  always  morbidly  and  excessively  irritable  and 
are  quite  sensitive  to  the  fact  that  they  have  fits,  and 
they  usually  hide  the  fact  as  far  as  they  can,  which  is  a 
practice  not  without  some  reason.  This  case  has  twice 
been  a  patient  in  an  insane  asylum,  entering  the  first 
time  at  nine  years  of  age  and  he  has  spent  most  of  his 
life  incarcerated. 

He  is  now  twenty-two  years  old  and  had  only  left  an 


lO  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

asylum  a  few  months  before  he  was  arrested  for  arson. 
When  he  left  the  asylum  he  had  neither  father,  mother, 
nor  friend  to  help  him,  and  he  was  discharged  under 
his  protest.  His  mother  died  of  consumption  some 
months  before  and  his  father  was  too  poor  and  far 
away  to  give  him  help.  His  only  lot  was  to  seek  oi  t 
odd  jobs  in  the  neighborhood  to  gain  him  shelter 
and  food.  He  tarried  in  this  irregular  way  for 
several  months  and  finally  tramped  off  in  search  of 
greener  pastures. 

He  had  been  a  week  with  his  last  employer  when  he 
set  fire  to  the  barn.  Just  previous,  the  same  morning, 
he  had  been  to  a  saloon  not  far  away,  where  he  drank 
whisky,  but  does  not  know  what  possessed  him  to 
commit  the  crime.  He  says  his  employer  had 
treated  him  meanly,  which  is  not  at  all  unlikely,  for 
such  creatures  are  commonly  treated  without  proper 
consideration. 

But  whether  this  was  so  or  not,  he  probably  would 
not  have  committed  the  arson  had  he  not  been  the  sub- 
ject of  a  mind  perverted  by  the  epilepsy  and  with  all  its 
morbid  possibilities,  making  him  not  only  irritable,  but 
a  dangerous  person.  He  has  the  habit  of  reading  the 
New  Testament  and  saying  prayers  much  of  his  time. 
In  his  cell  almost  every  night  he  has  a  spell  of  inco- 
herent muttering  in  French  and  Latin  and  of  a  religious 
composition.  At  times  he  is  quite  "ugly"  in  disposition 
to  his  cell-mates,  and  sometimes  they  are  afraid  of  him. 
His  mother  died  of  consumption  and  his  father,  he  says, 
is  a  good  man,  attending  church,  and  neither  ^moking, 


CASE  I. 


II 


chewing  nor  drinking,  and  he  wishes  he  was  Hke 
him.  But  it  seems,  as  he  remarked,  that  he  cannot 
do   better. 

His  eyes  have  a  pecuHar,  uncertain,  and  indistinct 
look,  while  his  face  has  a  dusky  hue  and  glum  expression. 
His  head  is  somewhat  smaller  than   the  average,    and 


CASE  I— GEORGE  PERRY. 


while  not  typically  normal,  it  has  no  features  worth 
mentioning.  His  general  condition  of  body  is  low  and 
coarse,  the  heart  sounds  having  the  nervous  muffle,  and 
his  stomach  region  is  easily  distressed  by  pressure.  His 
grip  is  weak,  although  when  excited  to  violence,  he 
would  probably  have  great  strength.     His  cellmates  said 


12  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

that  as  a  rule  he  was  as  he  appeared  to  me,  a  demented 
but  orderly  person. 

Found  insane  by  a  jury  in  Judge  Tuthill's  court  December  13th, 
1896,  and  sent  to  the  criminal  asylum  at  Chester,  111. 

CRIME    IS    INCREASING    FASTER    THAN   THE   POPULATION. 

New  York,  Feb.  23,  1897. — It  has  been  discovered 
that  New  York  has  grown  wickeder  in  the  last  ten  years. 
'  The  annual  report  of  the  Board  of  City  Magistrates  made 
to-day  shows  that  the  population  of  the  city  has  in- 
creased 33 J  per  cent,  in  the  last  ten  years,  while  crime 
has  increased  more  than  fifty  per  cent.  Nine  magistrates 
tried  112,160  cases,  held  73,537  defendants,  and  dis- 
charged the  other  38,623. 

While  the  total  number  of  arrests  for  all  offenses  has 
increased  50  per  cent.,  there  has  been  an  increase  of 
nearly  90  per  cent,  in  felonies.  In  1886,  4,171  persons 
were  charged  with  felony.  In  1896,  the  felonies  reached 
7,021.  Of  this  number  the  female  prisoners  more  than 
kept  pace  with  the  general  average,  increasing  from  412 
in  1886  to  722  in  1896. 

Seventy-two  women  tried  suicide  in  1896,  while  only 
25  did  it  in  1886.  The  increase  of  attempted  suicides 
among  the  males  was  from  64  in  1886  to  147  in  1896. 
Ten  years  ago  eight  female  burglars  were  captured. 
Last  year  the  number  was  sixteen.  Last  year  1,219 
males  were  charged  with  burglary,  against  697  in  1886. 

Under  ** homicides,"  woman  reached  the  limit  in  1895, 
when  19  cases  of  murder  were  charged  to  her  account. 
Last  year  she  was  charged  with  ten  cases,  against    168 


CASE  I. 


13 


by  men.  In 
arraigned  for 
1897. 


886,    eight  women  and    106   men  were 
homicide." — Chicago   Tribune,  Feb.  2^, 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

Of 


THE    DEGENERATE  JAW. 

Dr.  Eugene  S.  Talbot,  of  Chicago,  who  is  a  high 
authority  on  the  human  jaw,  regards  all  deformities  of 
the  upper  jaw  as  being  either  "V"  shaped  or  saddle 
shaped,  or  modifications  of  these  two  types. 


Figure  i. 
A  type  of  the  common  normal  upper  jaw.     From  plate  by  Dr.  E.  S.  Talbot. 


Figure  2. 

A  type  of  abnormal  upper  jaw.     "V"  shaped. 

From  plate  by  Dr.  E.  S  Talbot. 


Figure  3.  '    > 

A  type  of  abnormal  upper  jaw.     Saddle  shaded 
From  plate  by  Dr.  E.  S.  Talbot 


CASES  II,    in  AND  IV.  1$ 

CASES  II,   III  AND  IV— MURDER. 

INSANITY,     MORAL    PALSY    AND    CRIMINALITY. 

All  so-called  criminals  may  be  divided  into  three  great 
groups — viz.:  (i)  The  insane,  (2)  the  moral  paretic, 
and  (3)  the  selfish,  or  criminal  class  proper.  A  criminal 
may  become  a  moral  paretic  and  a  moral  paretic  may 
become  a  criminal,  while  both  tend  toward  insanity. 
An  insane  person  is  also  more  or  less  of  a  moral  paretic 
and  may  be  induced  by  delusion  or  by  suggestion  (per- 
sonal or  external  circumstances)  to  commit  crime.  The 
insane  subject  is  chiefly  at  fault  in  the  power  of  discern- 
ment; the  moral  paretic  is  chiefly  at  fault  in  the  power 
of  choice;  and  the  selfish  individual  or  criminal  proper 
lacks  in  first  principles,  which  constitutes  the  basis  of 
love  in  the  humanitarian  sense. 

It  so  happens  that  the  last  three  persons  executed  in 
Chicago'"  were  examples  of  these  three  classes,  Windrath 
representing  the  insane.  Fields  the  moral  paretic,  and 
Mannow  the  criminal.  I  shall  here  describe  them  in  brief 
that  an  idea  of  the  fundamental  differences  may  be  made 
more  evident  by  contrast.  But  first  a  few  words  on 
insanity. 

As  before  stated,  the  fact  that  one-third  of  all  murder 
convicts  in  England  sooner  or  later  become  insane  and 
that  the  proportion  of  life  convicts  in  New  York  State 
who  become  insane  is  over  one-sixth  are  facts  which 
lead  to  the  presumption  that  almost  all  such  cases  were 
in  some  degree  insane  at  and  before  their  conviction, 

*  This  article  appeared  in  the  Tribune,  Nov.  30,  1896, 


l6  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

though  undetected  at  that  time.  This  goes  to  show  that 
insanity  among  criminals  is  much  more  frequent  than  our 
legal  guardians  seem  inclined  to  believe. 

If  for  a  moment  we  consider  the  chief  qualities  of  the 
mind  we  will  recognize  them  as  included  in  perception, 
reason,  and  will,  and  it  can  further  be  observed  that 
each  one  may  become  more  markedly  deficient  than 
either  of  the  other  two  at  the  same  time.  Thus  we  can 
have  a  great  variety  in  the  exhibitions  of  abnormal  mind. 
But  by  the  term  insanity  we  do  not  include  all  affections 
of  the  mind  but  only  such  as  involve  the  derangement  of 
reason  to  such  an  extent  that  the  individual  cannot  be 
reasoned  out  of  an  idea  which  is  unquestionably  wrong 
when  viewed  in  the  light  of  relevant  principles  and  par- 
ticular facts  suitably  presented. 
/  We  have  grown  to  regard  the  term  insanity  to  imply  a 
if  fully  irresponsible  state  of  mind.  But  insanity  may  exist 
either  in  a  fixed  or  fugitive  form  so  that  it  is  often  difficult 
•  to  decide  upon  the  question  of  its  existence  at  a  particu- 
lar time.  Even  in  a  chronic  form  of  insanity  a  delusion 
is  not  always  manifest  and  indeed  may  be  secreted  and 
denied  or  it  may  even  exist  in  a  sort  of  latent  state  only 
to  break  forth  under  particular  circumstances. 

However,  there  is  usually  enough  concurrent  evidence 
in  the  demeanor,  the  physical  condition,  and  the  history 
of  the  subject  to  establish  a  basis  for  an  opinion. 

The  many  suicides  so  surprising  to  intimate  friends  of 
victims  indicate  something  of  the  frequency  with  which 
the  delusional  state  exists  without  being  discovered. 
While  insanity  is  not  in  reality  a  disease  of  the  mind, 


CASES  II,    III  AND  IV.  I  7 

but  rather,  of  the  brain,  it  may  appear  remarkable  that 
the  brain  should  so  often  present  no  evidence  whatever 
of  disease  in  persons  who  have  died  while  insane.  But 
when  we  observe  the  fact  that  some  of  our  worst  cases 
have  periods  of  quiet  and  comparative  normal  reason, 
alternating  with  spells  of  furious  mania,  we  cannot  be 


/ 


CASE  n— WINDRATH. 
A  type  of  the  neurotic  look. 


much  surprised  to  fin(J  that  insanity  is  due  to  a  functional 
disease  of  the  brain,  rather  than  organic  defect,  and  that 
gross  injuries  to  that  organ  are  not  essentials.  \ 

Indeed,  on  Blackwell's  Island,  New  York  City,  where 
I  made  many  post-mortem  examinations  of  the  brain  at 
the  almshouse,  the  workhouse,  and  the  insane  asylum,  I 
more  frequently  found  gross  defects,  such  as  wasting  and 


l8  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

fatty  softening  of  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain,  to  exist 
among  the  old  paupers  than  among  the  inmates  of  the 
asylum. 

There  are  almost  all  conceivable  forms  of  insanity 
indeed,  as  various  as  are  personal  peculiarities.  But 
the  insanity  found  among  the  crime  committing  class 
seems  to  differ  somewhat,  as  a  rule,  from  the  types  of 
our  private  and  charitable  institutions.  Sometimes 
mania  and  melancholia  alternate  in  the  same  person  for 
a  prolonged  period,  and  even  a  form  of  dementia  may 
play  in  with  them  at  times.  Sometimes  a  case  is  found 
where  at  least  two  of  these  conditions  of  mind  coexist 
in  the  same  individual. 

In  the  insane,  action  is  chiefly  the  product  of  subcon- 
scious reasoning,  which  is  dominated  or  influenced  by  a 
delusion  in  the  form  of  a  principle  or  a  particular  inci- 
dent, such  as  a  hallucination  or  an  illusion. 

Case  II. — As  regards  Windrath,  I  shall  only  refer  to 
that  part  of  the  evidence  of  his  insanity  which  cannot  be 
disputed,  as  I  was  one  of  the  medical  witnesses  in  the 
case  at  the  trial. 

In  the  order  of  importance  they  are: 

First — "He  raved  to  the  very  last,"  as  the  Evening 
Post  aptly  stated. 

Second — His  statement  to  attendants,  when  they 
charged  him  with  shamming  on  the  morning  of  his  exe- 
cution, that  "  he  guessed  it  was  all  up  with  him  anyhow, 
and  that  he  had  fooled  them  so  long  he  might  as  well 
keep  it  up,"  or  to  that  effect. 

Third — No  evidence  of  shamming  was  ever  produced. 


CASES  II,   III  AND  IV.  19 

Fourth — His  pulse  was  during  a  spell  of  excitement 
120,  and  a  week  later  it  was  60. 

Fifth — He  was  working  enthusiastically  in  his  cell  at 
times  on  the  problem  of  perpetual  motion,  which  had 
been  his  fad  since  boyhood,  though  his  education  was 


CASE  III— FIELDS. 
A  type  of  the  moral  paretic  look. 

against  it.      He  made  very  artistic  drawings  of   a  very 
ingenious  mechanism. 

Sixth — When  he  was  a  patient  at  the  Dunning  Hos- 
pital for  the  Insane  he  had  delusions  of  sin,  which  are 
not  likely  in  a  shammer,  and  when  he  was  discharged  it 
was  as  ''improved  "  on  the  records,  and  not  as  cured.  I 
may  here  also  mention  that  no  crimes  had  previously 


20  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

been  established  against  him,  and  his  sentence  of  execu- 
tion was  based  entirely  on  circumstantial  evidence."^ 

Moral  paresis  or  palsy  coexists  with  insanity  more  or 
less,  but  may  exist  without  it,  and  therefore  it  is  not 
necessarily  associated  with  any  delusion  fixed  against 
reason.  It  is  simply  an  abnormal  weakness  of  the  will, 
or  rather  a  loss  of  self-control,  which  represents  want  of 
brain  tone.  The  subject  may  know  a  particular  act  is 
wrong,  but  is  unable  to  refrain  from  doing  it  under 
special  exciting  circumstances  or  provocation.  In  other 
words,  he  is  subjective  to  suggestion  either  from  feeling 
of  passion  or  external  influences,  such  as  association  may 
induce.  Moral  palsy  in  one  form  or  another  is  extremely 
common,  and  in  its  worst  degree — such  as,  for  example, 
in  some  cases  of  inebriety — the  will  is  so  far  destroyed 
the  individual  is  simply  the  creature  of  circumstances  for 
the  time  being.  The  inhibitory  powers  of  the  brain  are 
weakened  by  disease  produced  by  some  form  of  self-in- 
dulgence born  of  bad  example  or  an  inherited  proclivity. 

Some  individuals  become  so  weak-minded  as  to  be 
fatuous,  while  in  others  the  integrity  of  the  knowing  and 
reasoning  self  may  coexist  with  some  special  failing.  It 
is  the  borderland  of  insanity  proper,  and  heredity,  in- 
juries, fevers,  and  ailments  of  all  kinds  may  give  rise  or 
contribute  to  it.  But  self-indulgence  is  the  usual  and 
chief  cause  favored  by  circumstances. 

Case  III. — Young  Fields,  the  negro  who  was  executed 
last  spring,  was  a  type  of  the  moral  paretic.      He  was  a 

*  See  review  of  this  case  in  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical 
Association,  May  29,  1896. 


CASES  II,    III  AND  IV. 


21 


hotel  porter,  lived  with  a  woman  with  whom  he  had  a 
drunken  quarrel  in  a  fit  of  jealousy  in  which  the  one 
assaulted  the  other,  when  he  seized  a  lemon-squeezer, 
which  happened  to  be  at  hand,  with  which  he  struck  her 
on  the  head.  From  the  blow  she  fell  and  he  made  every 
effort  to  revive  her,  but  she  never  recovered. 


CASE  IV— MANNOW. 
A  type  of  the  criminal  look. 

He  was  a  simple-minded  creature,  ruled  almost  en- 
tirely by  his  animal  instincts,  which  he  frankly  admitted 
he  indulged  without  curb.  At  first  he  resorted  to  stupid 
lying  in  his  wish  to  save  himself.  He  had  an  open 
countenance  and  a  genial  disposition,  which  was  almost 
childish.  He  became  resigned  to  his  fate,  buoyed  up  by 
religious  ideas,  and  went  to  the  gallows,  supposing  that 


22  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

his  execution  was  just,  because  the  woman  was  dead  and 
that  it  would  make  him  right  with  the  Ahnighty. 

Case  IV.  The  criminal  of  criminals  is  an  individual 
who,  with  the  power  of  discernment  and  the  power  of 
choice,  has  no  conscientious  scruples  with  reference  to 
truth,  justice,  or  economy  when  in  conflict  with  a  selfish 
purpose.  He  has  no  restraint  but  the  fear  of  being 
deprived  of  his  liberty,  and  in  his  ideals  he  has  no 
incentive  to  right-doing. 

The  details  of  Mannow's  history  are  yet  fresh  in -the 
public  mind.  He  went  to  the  gallows  evincing  a  mixture 
of  bravado  and  cowardice,  and  without  any  sign  of  re- 
pentance, although  he  had  admitted  his  own  guilt, 
murder  and  robbery,  and  asserted  the  innocence  of 
Windrath.      He  had  a  penitentiary  record. 

(I  spoke  with  Mannow  but  did  not  have  the  opportunity  of  examin- 
ing him.  He  shot  the  cashier  of  the  West  Chicago  Street  Railway 
Company  while  committing  a  midnight  robbeVy  in  the  company's  office. 
Windrath  was  supposed  to  be  his  accomplice  but  he  was  convicted  on 
very  weak  evidence.) 


CASE  V.  23 

CASE  V— ALCOHOLIC   SOMNAMBULE— 
LARCENY. 

Mind  molds  matter,  while  matter  conditions  mind  by 
its  inherent  limitations.  This  principle  prevails  every- 
where in  the  natural  world  in  one  way  or  another.  The 
formative  power  or  metaphysical  substance  which  gives 
form  and  development  to  the  body,  is  mind  in  its  earliest 
action,  utilizing  the  various  energies  provided  for  its  ser- 
vice. Thus  mind  and  body  run  parallel  to  each  other  in 
range  of  development  and  power  to  accomplish.  In 
other  words,  the  one  grows  with  the  growth  of  the  other 
and  strengthens  with  its  strength,  so  that  what  affects 
the  one  must  influence  the  other.  Thus  every  physical 
peculiarity  has  a  background  meaning,  indicates  a  latent 
energy  or  aptness,  or  else  an  active  proclivity. 

But  it  is  in  every-day  evidence  that  a  fortunate  educa- 
tion will  produce  the  best  character  in  spite  of  the 
physical  deformities  we  call  degenerate  stygmata.  Ex- 
ternal features  do  not  indicate  the  moral  character, 
though  they  must  always  represent  energies  which,  if  not 
well  directed,  will  run  wild.  It  thus  would  seem  that 
environment  explains  heredity,  and  that,  strictly  speak- 
ing, nothing  is  inherited  but  specie  characteristics.  Our 
earliest  surroundings  contain  in  either  gross  or  subtle' 
form  all  that  the  personalities  of  our  parents  represent, 
whether  latent  or  active,  secret  or  manifest.  Added  to 
this  come  the  more  extended  surroundings  and  experi- 
ences of  childhood  and  later  life.  Thus  some  evils  are 
inherited,    so   to   speak,    which  are  hard  to   place,   but 


24  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

when  they  exist  in  parents  we  have  htiie  doubt  of  their 
main  source. 

~  Inebriety  is  the  commonest  of  morbid  conditions 
associated  with  crime,  and  according  to  the  statistics  of 
inebriate  asylums  over  30  per  cent,  of  their  inmates  had 
heredity  as  a  factor.  As  a  disease,  strictly  speaking, 
inebriety  is  not  inherited,  but  the  inducing  factors  of 
physical  and  moral  instability  seem  to  arise  from  early 
influences.  The  drink  habit  of  the  inebriate  starts  in 
many  ways,  but  most  commonly  in  youth  and  often  in 
childhood.  Step  by  step  periodical  excesses  increase  in 
number  and  severity  until  the  individual's  character  is 
changed,  the  power  of  resistance  lost,  and  the  brain 
irreparably  damaged. 

Case  V  is  an  inebriate  accused  of  larceny.  He  is 
a  mechanic,  54  years  of  age,  of  medium  height,  and 
light  build.  He  has  been  a  widower  for  many  years  and 
has  one  son,  who  lives  abroad.  When  seen  he  was  in  a 
nervous  tremor  and  his  look  was  anxious,  partaking 
somewhat  of  a  wild  stare,  2s  if  on  the  verge  of  delirium 
tremens — an  experience  he  has  several  times  had.  In 
answering  questions  he  usually  repeated  them  before 
replying.  He  said  he  began  to  drink  when  a  boy  at 
home.  His  father  was  a  hard  drinker,  reformed  for  a 
number  of  years,  and  again  fell  a  prey  to  the  habit. 
Owing  to  his  father's  dissipations  his  mother  had  to  do 
washing  to  support  the  family,  but  finally  she  also  be- 
came a  victim  of  drink.  She  was  a  woman  of  generous 
disposition.  He  has  a  brother  who  drinks  hard,  but  a 
married  sister  is  an  abstainer.      Aside  from  an  attack  of 


CASE  V.  25 

typhoid  fever  he  has  been  free  from  ordinary  ailments 
excepting  insomnia  and  loss  of  appetite,  which  he  has 
frequently  experienced  during  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years. 

His  tremor  of  body  and  demented  manner  indicate  a 
serious  condition  of  his  brain,  while  his  stomach,  liver, 
kidneys,  and  heart  tell  cf  their  hard  usage.  Yet,  not- 
withstanding all  this,  his  fairly  abundant  hair  is  un- 
changed in  color.  He  has  seen  many  troubles  and  has 
made  many  decisions  and  efforts  to  reform  himself.  He 
does  not  believe  in  the  "gold  cure"  and  so  has  not 
tried  it.  He  has  ''dropped"  into  mission  meetings  at 
times  and  says  he  prays  every  night. 

The  point  of  peculiar  interest  in  this  case  is  that  he 
disclaims  any  knowledge  as  tj  how  became  in  possession 
of  another  person's  overcoat,  which  he  was  found  wear- 
ing. He  is  evidently  a  man  with  naturally  a  good  dis- 
position, industrious,  and  of  honorable  habits,  and  my 
testing  on  the  point  in  question  convinced  me  of  his  claim. 

Inebriety  is  frequently  the  cause  of  crimes  as  of  other 
strange  acts  cf  which  the  subjects  are  not  conscious.  On 
such  occasions  the  condition  of  the  mind  may  be  a  form 
of  insanity  cr  else  a  form  of  the  hypnotic  state,  like  the 
"sleep-walking"  state,  in  which  the  subject  has  all  the 
appearance  of  knowing  what  he  is  doing.  Sub-conscious 
reasoning  is  going  on,  and  suggestions  have  an  influence 
they  would  not  have  in  the  conscious  state.  The  in- 
dividual is  another  personality,  so  to  speak,  for  the  time 
being.  This  condition  is  due  to  starvation  of  the  brain 
from  loss  of  sleep  or  food,  or  both,  added  to  some  such 
irritation    as   alcoholic   drinks    produce    in    such   cases. 


26  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

Some  persons  are  prone  to  this  with  but  Httle  dissipation. 
As  in  epilepsy,  the  discharge  from  the  irritation  seems  to 
make  for  the  higher  centers  of  the  brain  rather  than  the 
lower  centers  and  spinal  cord. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  difference  in  the  personal 
factors  and  the  effects  of  the  same  ordeal  on  different 
persons,  three  typically  healthy  instructors  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Iowa  recently  tried  the  experiment  of  going 
without  sleep  for  ninety  hours,  with  the  result  that  by 
the  second  night  one  of  them  had  a  delusion  which  per- 
sisted and  became  stronger  until  he  got  sleep,  while  the 
other  two  experimenters  had  no  such  experience. 

[This  case  developed  delirium  tremens  within  a  day  or  two  after  I 
saw  him,  but  recovered  before  his  trial  at  which  I  gave  the  opinion  as 
above  stated,  and  the  jury  rendered  a  verdict  of  "  temporary  insanity  " 
in  Judge  Sears'  court,  Dec.  22,  1896.] 

SLEEPWALKER    CUTS    OFF    HER    HAIR. 

Janesville,  Wis.,  March  10. — Miss  Lulu  Reeder  had 
a  fine  head  of  hair,  twenty-seven  inches  long,  of  which 
she  was  very  proud.  When  she  got  up  she  was  greatly 
surprised  to  find  that  during  the  night  she  had  been  re- 
lieved of  her  tresses.  They  were  cut  off  close  to  her 
head.  When  the  family  went  downstairs  the  mystery 
was  solved.  Lying  on  the  floor  of  the  sitting-room  was 
the  hair  with  the  shears  lying  on  top.  Miss  Reeder  had 
been  walking  in  her  sleep  and  cut  off  her  own  hair  with- 
out knowing  it.  —  Times-Herald,  March  11,  iSpy. 


CASE  VI.  27 


CASE  VI— ASSASSINATION. 

Prendergast  who,  at  the  age  of  26,  was  executed  in 
1894  for  the  assassination  of  Carter  H.  Harrison,  mayor 
of  Chicago,  was  much  Hke  other  regicides  in  his  mental 
condition.  Although  coherent  in  patches,  as  Dr.  H.  B. 
Favill  remarked  at  the  trial,  he  could  not  rationally  con- 
nect means  with  ends  in  his  own  plans.  He  could  not 
perceive  the  inadequacy  of  his  own  abilities  for  his 
dominant  purpose,  which  were  totally  out  of  all  propor- 
tion and  fitness  for  the  end  in  view.  Although  nothing 
but  a  hired  newsvender  and  a  fanatic  on  the  single-tax 
question,  he  demanded  to  be  made  corporation  counsel 
to  the  City  of  Chicago,  to  insure  certain  "reforms" 
particularly  the  elevating  of  the  railway  tracks  within  the 
city.  To  deny  his  demands'  was,  in  his  view,  to  be  an 
enemy  to  the  people  and  to  God,  and  therefore  it  could 
be  no  crime  to  destroy  the  main  obstacles.  Like  young 
Caserio  who  assassinated  Carnot,  President  of  France, 
he  avoided  female  society  and  had  neither  a  chum  nor  an 
accomplice  of  any  kind.  Both  had  much  religious  fervor 
and  were  absorbed  in  political  studies  which  they  were 
unfitted  to  grasp,  and  both  came  from  well-marked 
neurotic  stocks  on  their  fathers'  sides.  Guiteau,  the 
slayer  of  Garfield,  had  much  the  same  erratic  disposition. 
During  Prendergast's  last  trial  I  examined  him  privately 
in  the  jail.  He  had  a  set  countenance  which  was  mild 
but  immobile  or  stolid  in  expression,  and  unresponsive 
to  thought  change  in  conversation.      He  had  occasional 


28 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


twitchings  of  single  muscles,  while  there  was  a  more  or 
less  constant  fine  tremor  of  the  whole  face.  His  voice 
had  a  lack-normal  element,  and  his  pulse  also  betrayed 
a  neurotic  condition  in  its  lack-tone  indications,  while 
his  temperature  was  three-fourths  of  a  degree  above  the 
normal.      Yet    his    demeanor    was    superficially  that    of 


CASE  VI— PRENDERGAST. 
Photograph  taken  in  the  County  Jail  by  Dr.  E.  S.  Talbot. 

quiet  self-possession,  and  the  conditions  of  the  examina- 
tion were  common-place  and  wholly  free  from  irritation, 
thus  showing  that  his  abnormal  symptoms  were  deep- 
rooted  and  of  slow  growth.  He  had  an  abnormal  look 
and  a  stiffy  bearing  while  he  was  frank,  pertinent  and 
fairly  free  in  replying.      I  had  no  doubt   of  his  insanity, 


V     OP  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


CASE  VI, 


29 


although  I  did  not  testify.  Nor  did  any  of  the  dis- 
tinguished neurologists  of  Chicago  (such  as  Drs.  Sanger 
Brown,  Church  and  Dewey)  have  any  doubt  that  he  was 
insane. 

The  testimony  of  the  uninitiated  in  matters  psychologi- 
cal, seems  to  have  received  the  greater  respect  from  the 


CASE  VI-PRENDFRGAST. 
Photograph  taken  in  the  County  Jail  by  Dr.  E.  S.  Talbot. 

jury.  Even  the  jail  guards  (who  are  so  used  to  the 
tricks  and  lies  of  prisoners  that  they  are  prejudiced 
against  the  truth)  were  called  to  the  stand  to  give 
their  opinion  that  he  was  not  insane  as  they  also 
did  in  the  Windrath  case,  a  practice  favored  by  the 
fact  that,  as  Lawyer  Trude  remarked  in  behalf  of  the 


30  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

State,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  had  decided 
that  a  layman,  such  as  a  farmer,  is  as  competent  to  give 
an  opinion  on  an  alleged  case  of  insanity  as  is  a  physi- 
cian. Such  a  view  makes  a  farmer  a  naturalist  and  a 
star-gazer  an  astronomer. 

Would-be  regicides  have  usually  died  with  conclusive 
evidence  of  insanity.  Passanti,  who  attempted  to  kill 
Humbert,  King  of  Italy,  is  now  in  an  asylum  in  the  last 
stage  of  dementia. 


CASES   VII  AND  VIII.  3  I 


CASES  VII  AND  VIII-MURDER. 

Among  ''occasional"  criminals  there  are  many  individ- 
uals whose  mental  condition  at  the  time  of  criminal  act  lies 
somewhere  en  or  near  the  foggy  fringe  of  insanity.  The 
distinguishing  points  are:  (i)  The  mental  disturbance  is 
but  transitory,  only  lasting  a  few  hours  at  most;  (2)  the 
frenzy  is  due  to  an  emotion  seemingly  pat  with  the  occa- 
sion but  excessive  in  degree;  and  (3)  there  are  no  un- 
founded delusions  fixed  against  reason. 

The  chief  background  cause  of  this  condition  is  phys- 
ical— a  nervous  instability  which  may  be  inherited  or 
acquired,  but  often  both.  It  may  be  acquired  through 
an  accident  to  the  head,  or  a  sickness,  or  some  habit  of 
dissipation,  whether  secret  or  frank.  The  condition  is 
that  of  an  unstable  brain  state  which,  owing  to  the  par- 
allelism which  exists  between  mind  and  body,  renders 
the  subject  liable  under  special  exciting  circumstances 
or  provocation  to  completely  lose  his  self-possession  or 
normal  will  and  become  controlled  by  an  impulse  or 
emotion  to  do  an  act  which  he  afterwards  deplores,  and 
which  he,  perhaps,  hardly  realized  at  the  time.  An 
added  factor  may  be  a  cumulative  predisposition  from 
repeated  irritation  along  a  special  line  until  the  frenzy 
or  furor  results  in  what  in  some  cases  may  be  defined  as 
a  capturing  circumstance. 

The  great  prevalence  of  such  a  condition  in  some  de- 
gree or  other  does  not  alter  the  fact  that  it  is  a  men- 
tal irritability  due  to  a  morbid  physical  state  which  too 


L 


32  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

often  is  inherited,  at  least  in  part,  and  from  which  the 
subject  cannot  escape  without  an  assistance  which  often 
lies  beyond  his  vision  or  his  reach.  In  scientific  terms, 
the  inhibitory  power  of  the  brain  is  defective,  which  is 
the  physiologic  equivalent  for  enfeeblement  of  the  will. 

This  is  moral  paresis,  of  which  there  are  about  as 
many  forms  and  degrees  as  humanity  has  failings  or 
perversions. 

In  this  subdivision  of  delinquents  the  most  pronounced 
cases  are  found  among  the  most  marked  degenerates — 
those  whose  form  of  head  and  feature  differ  most  from 
the  normal  type.  Such  are  commonly  the  output  of 
4he  social  gutter,  and,  although  they  may  acquire  skill 
in  some  particular  occupation  and  in  their  habits  seem 
comparatively  sober,  orderly  and  industrious,  they  are 
,  but  little  influenced  by  the  higher  sentiments  of  human- 
ity, and  their  incentives  to  live  are  but  little  more  than 
those  of  sensual  feasting.  They  usually  possess  the 
common  sentiments  of  right  and  wrong,  but,  as  a  rule, 
their  social  field  is  narrowed  by  ther  controlling  perver- 
sions, their  self-indulgences,  favored  by  a  low  environ- 
ment, and  the  absence  of  a  satisfying  final  purpose 
in  life. 

Within  the  last  few  months  the  following  two  illustra- 
tive cases  of  rather  extreme  types  came  under  my  notice, 
viz. :  John  Wolker  and  Matt  Rollinger,  both  recently 
sent  to  the  penitentiary,  the  first  for  life  and  the  other 
for  fourteen  years. 

John  Wolker  is  a  German,  fifty-two  years  of  age,  and 
a  carpenter  by  occupation.     He  is  of  medium  height  and 


CASES  VII  AND  VIII. 


33 


rather  lean  in  form.  By  his  first  wife  he  had  two  children, 
whom  he  boarded  out  in  care  of  a  sister  prior  to  his  sec- 
ond marriage.  He  had  been  boarding  with  his  second 
wife  for  some  time  before  he  married  her,  and  it  seems 
the  union  was  not  born  of  any  sacred  spark,  but  was 
rather  a  matter  of  mutual  convenience.  During  the 
three  or  four  years  they  lived  together,  many  quarrels 


CASK  VII— JOHN  WOLKER. 

arose,  with  jealousy  and  distrust  growing  stronger, 
chiefly,  it  appears,  on  the  part  of  the  wife,  who,  unlike 
Wolker,  is  a  robust  person. 

Finally,  one  evening,  while  he  was  partly  under  the 
influence  of  whisky  and  beer  and  frenzied  by  his  wife's 
conduct  toward  him  at  the  time,  he  took  an  old  pistol 
he  had  kept  for  s»  long  time  and   discharged   it  in  the 


34  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

direction  of  his  wife  and  her  two  little  girls,  mortally 
wounding  the  one  who  had  been  his  pet. 

When  he  told  me  his  story  he  had  frequent  spells  of 
hysterical  sobbing,  suddenly  breaking  down  and  as  sud- 
denly resuming,  but  evidently  intense  in  his  feeling.  He 
declared  he  would  gladly  die  for  the  child's  sake,  and 
that  he.  did  not  realize  what  he  was  doing  at  the  time. 

He  pleaded  guilty,  and  the  judge  sentenced  him  to  life 
imprisonment  instead  of  execution,  owing  to  his  evident 
mental  weakness.  As  the  testimony  in  court  was  one- 
sided, I  am  precluded  from  here  discussing  the  case  fully. 
(But  I  am  perfectly  satisfied  he  is  naturally  a  harmless 
individual  in  the  absence  of  great  provocation.  This  was 
the  first  charge  of  a  criminal  offense  against  him. 

Matt  Rollinger  is  a  Luxemberger,  thirty-four  years  of 
age,  married,  three  children,  and  a  cabinet-maker  by  oc- 
cupation. Boarding  at  his  house  was  a  man  whose  in- 
timacy with  Mrs.  Rollinger  gave  rise  to  rumors  which 
reached  his  ears,  and  finally  he  became  convinced 
of  their  truth.  One  morning  after  witnessing  more 
than  he  could  withstand,  he  sallied  forth  in  the  early 
twilight,  partly  attired  in  female  garb,  and  with  pistol 
in  hand  lay  in  wait  for  the  exit  of  his  enemy.  While 
the  light  was  still  dim  he  saw  a  form  approaching 
which  he  thought  was  the  man  he  wanted.  He  fired 
and  the  man  fell  dead.  He  had  killed  his  friend  and 
neighbor  and  not  the  object  of  his  fury. 

He  was  arrested  for  murder  and  at  his  trial  it  was 
shown  he  was  in  a  bewildered  and  frenzied  state  of 
mind  when  found  on  the  spot  the  next  moment. 


CASES  VII  AND  VIII. 


35 


He  is  a  stolid  and  childish  creature  with  a  harmless 
disposition  except  under  great  provocation.  His  mistake 
and  confinement  seemed  to  add  a   melancholic  and  de- 

Imented  condition.      But  he  had  the  reputation  of  being 
a  peaceable,  industrious  and  skilled  mechanic. 
He  is  short  in  stature,  but  robust  in  build.     The  top 
of  his  head  is  flat — a  condition  which  is  said  to  be  al- 


CASE  VIII— MATT.  ROLLINGER. 

ways  associated  with  a  weak  intellect.  On  good  author- 
ity I  am  told  some  of  the  jurymen  remarked  that  if  he 
had  killed  the  man  he  intended  to,  he  would  have  been 
acquitted.  It  seems  they  did  not  feel  it  would  be  safe  to 
free  him  at  once,  and  they  saw  no  other  course  open  than 
to  return  the  verdict  of  fourteen  years  in  the  penitentiary. 


36 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


,g^p??PX      ^ 

'^rf^i 

B^p,"                      ,  ?!.-  ^  "^ 

■■-■/^^l 

RBMf 

/  -.ir^'"^ 

Si'Uft  View 

\    / 

THE  BRAIN  OF  THE  BEAVER. 
From  Cassel's  Natural  History,  Vol.  IV. 


CASE  IX.  37 


CASE  IX— MURDER. 

Last  year  (1895)  more  than  ten  thousand  murders  were 
committed  in  the  United  States,  which  is  more  than 
one-fifth  of  the  total  deaths  in  the  Federal  army  during 
the  whole  civil  war,  which  lasted  nearly  five  years.  Of 
all  civilized  countries  the  United  States  has  the  highest 
murder  rate,  while  India  has  the  lowest. 

Many  so-called  murder  cases  are  accidental;  some  are 
due  to  assault  without  intent  to  kill,  while  others  are 
premeditated  and  intentional.  The  latter  two  classes 
may  be  subdivided  according  to  the  mental  status  of  the 
assailants — that  is,  the  presence  of  such  factors  as  irrita- 
tion, moral  palsy,  delusional  state,  murder  intent,  crim- 
inal indifference,  and  other  conditions. 

Case  IX,  which  I  am  now  to  describe,  is  a  lad  of 
the  common  negro  t>pe.  He  is  17  years  of  age  and  of| 
average  height  and  form.  At  2  o'clock  one  morning  he 
struck  a  man  on  the  back  of  his  head  with  a  piece  of  gas 
pipe,  for  the  purpose  of  stunning  and  robbing  him.  The 
victim  fell,  but  immediately  recovered  his  feet  and  yelled, 
which  so  frightened  his  assailant  and  the  two  accomplices 
that  they  immediately  fled.  The  assaulted  man,  who 
kept  a  fruit  stand  in  the  neighborhood,  died  within 
twenty-four  hours. 

The  prisoner,  who  took  fright  at  his  victim's  yell,  re- 
turned to  his  room  and  went  to  bed,  but  did  not  sleep 
that  night.  For  a  waek  longer  he  served  at  his  usual 
business,  which  was  that  of  peddling  **winnies,"  mostly 


38  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

among  the  saloons,  between  the  hours  of  8  p.  m.  and 
I  to  3  a.  m. 

This  arrest  is  his  first,  and  he  says  he  can  hardly  un- 
derstand why  he  committed  the  crime,  as  he  was  receiving 
a  dollar  a  day  seven  days  in  the  week  from  his  employer, 
for  whom  he  worked  during  the  several  months  he  (the 
prisoner)  had  been  in  Chicago.  But  he  had  three  asso- 
ciates, one  being  a  woman,  all  of  whom  lodged  together 
and  had  been  out  of  work  for  some  time.  At  times  pre- 
vious, the  project  of  "holding  up"  somebody  had  been 
discussed  by  them,  because  considerable  of  that  busi- 
ness was  being  done  in  the  city,  so  that,  after  a  social 
drink  of  beer  in  their  not  over-aesthetic  apartments,  the 
three  lads  sallied  forth  for  game,  it  being  arranged  that 
our  present  subject  should  deal  the  blow  while  the  other 
two  attended  to  the  robbing. 

The  prisoner  was  born  and  reared  in  a  city  in  a  cotton 
state,  his  father  dying  when  he  was  a  small  child  and 
his  mother  when  he  was  I2  years  old,  after  which  he  was 
cared  for  by  an  older  sister.  He  can  neither  read  nor 
write,  and  has  chiefly  been  employed  as  a  porter  in 
hotels  or  saloons  attached  to  them.  He  admits  having 
all  the  common  vices  except  chewing  tobacco.  His 
mother  was  a  member  of  a  Methodist  church  and 
so  are  his  sisters  and  brothers,  who,  he  says,  are 
all  good  people  and  doing  well  in  far-away  Southern 
States.  He  believes  in  a  God  and  a  future  state  of 
rewards  and  punishments,  and  says  he  used  to  enjoy 
religious  preaching.  Says  he  realizes  he  has  gradually 
been    drifting   from  bad  to  worse,    and  thinks  his  pre- 


CASE  IX. 


39 


dicament   is  a  great  lesson  to  him   if  he  can  ever  get 
hberty. 

His  features  are  of  the  ordinary  negro  coarseness,  and 
his  look  is  serious  and  anxious,  but  can  hardly  be  called 
very  hard.  For  a  number  of  years  he  experienced  dizzi- 
ness on  stooping,  but  otherwise  he  has  always  been  in 


CASE  IX-SCOTT  PRICE. 

good  condition,  roughly  speaking,  as  at  present.  His 
general  nerve  tone  is  somewhat  below  par.  He  is  blird 
in  the  right  eye  from  an  old  injury. 

The  psychological  aspect  of  our  subject  is  that  of 
weakened  will  and  increased  suggestibility,  with  a  blur- 
ring of  the  moral  precepts  of  his  early  instruction.  He 
has  been  excluded  from  helpful  influences  of  good  litera- 


40  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

ture  and  parental  interest,  because  of  his  inability  to 
read  and  the  early  death  of  his  parents,  and  thus  the 
evils  of  his  associations  have  had  the  advantage.  Exam- 
ple and  association  are  far  more  powerful  than  precept 
with  the  young  and  the  thoughtless. 

Sensualities  have  been  in  him  bridled  by  little  more 
than  "job-keeping"  influences  and  the  absence  of  op- 
portunities, and  so,  though  still  in  his  formative  stage, 
his  mind  has  been  losing  ground  instead  of  normally 
gaining  in  strength  and  balance.  Long  befcre  the  com- 
monest signs  of  mental  derangement  are  evinced,  the 
will  is  being  palsied  and  the  range  of  thought  narrowed 
through  the  creeping  injury  to  the  brain.  At  his  age  the 
brain  is  vigorous  and  the  mind  active  and  keen.  It  is 
not  so  with  him.  He  simply  has  the  cunning  and  alert- 
ness of  the  weak,  from  the  experiences  of  hard  knocks. 
He  is  chiefly  a  product  of  his  later  environments,  to 
which  he  is  a  "suggestible"  subject.  In  his  case  the 
subtle  evolution  of  degeneracy,  or,  rather,  of  its  acquire- 
ment, does  not  extend  to  its  grosser  manifestations.  To 
say  he  is  low,  ignorant,  and  stupid  is  simply  admitting 
that  he  is  an  abnormal  being,  a  diseased  person. 

It  must  appear  from  the  facts  as  I  have  related  them 
that  his  mind  is  below  ordinary  acuteness.  To  illustrate: 
The  fact  that  he  had  no  urgency,  such  as  starvation,  to 
impel  or  induce  him  to  commit  such  an  outrage  for  the 
purpose  of  robbery,  and  the  fact  that  the  object  assaulted 
was  a  person  upon  whom  he  could  only  expect  to  find 
a  few  dollars  at  the  most,  together  with  the  fact 
that  the  assaulted  person  was  the  keeper  of  a  street  cor- 


CASE  IX, 


ner  fruit  stand  in  his  own  neighborhood,  is  evidence  of 
defective  thinking  of  a  degenerate  nature. 

Sentenced  May  26,  1897,  in  Judge  Ball's  court  to  be  hanged  June 
i8ih,  1897.      [Respited  for  30  days  by  the  Governor  as  we  go  to  press] 


42 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


THE  BRAIN  OF  A  SHEEP. 


SIDE  VIEW  OF  THE  BRAIN  OF  A  MICROCEPHALIC  (LITTLE  BRAIN)  IDIOT. 
[FROM  TUKE.] 


CASES  X,   XI  AND  XII.  43 


CASES  X,   XI  AND  XII— SEXUAL   PERVERSION. 

Perversion  of  the  sexual  instinct  assumes  many  forms,  1 
according  to  the  peculiarities  of  the  individual,  associa- 
tion,  accident  or  disease.  It  is  found  in  all  grades  of  [ 
society  and  is  associated  with  all  degrees  of  intelligence 
in  both  sexes.  The  sexual  instinct  being  provided  for 
the  perpetuation  of  the  species  can  only  be  rightly  ex- 
ercised within  very  narrow  limits  owing  to  the  far-reach- 
ing importance  of  its  physical  and  moral  results  both 
upon  the  individual  and  society.  It  is  an  instinct  which 
normally  comes  into  play  only  when  the  individual  has 
arrived  at  a  state  of  independence — at  an  age  of  responsi- 
bility when  he  and  she  have  the  physical  and  mental 
qualifications  to  earn  a  livelihood  and  take  care  of 
themselves  in  a  social  way  if  properly  ''brought  up."  I 
By  this  time  it  gradually  becomes  a  prominent  factor 
in  the  social  disposition.  But  in  the  absence  of  morbid 
habits  and  thoughts,  it  only  quickens  feeling  and  adds  to 
the  motor  power  in  a  general  way.  The  exercise  of  the 
sexual  system  in  its  special  function  is  at  best  a  sacrifice 
of  individual  capital  to  numerical  extension  or  social  gain. 
And  it  is  presumable  that  Nature  has  provided  that  no 
individual  shall  be  normally  impelled  to  perform  a  sexual 
act  of  any  kind,  where  the  degrading  of  character  or  ! 
energy  is  a  necessary  result.  Virtue,  vigor,  valor  and  ' 
victory  usually  go  hand  in  hand.  The  sexual  act  is  at 
no  time  necessary  for  the  best  of  health,  for  a  feeling  of 
urgency  is  but  a  symptom   of    a   needed  correction — a 


4\  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

djlinquency  elsewhere — in  personal  habits  and  thoughts. 
Sexual  passion  is  commonly  the  product  of  thought 
generated  in  a  less  than  normally  balanced  state  of  the 
mind,  for  while  in  the  best  balanced  individual  it  is  the 
keenest,  it  is  also  in  the  most  completely  subjective  state, 
evoked  only  by  the  proper  thoughts  in  a  fitting  relation- 
ship. A  functional  excess  being  in  itself  an  abuse  is  in 
effect  a  perversion,  although  it  is  not  commonly  regarded 
as  such.  Sexual  perversion,  as  an  abnormal  form  of 
sexual  gratification  is  indicative  of  an  abnormal  habit  of 
mind. 

In  its  commonest  form  "self  abuse"  it  often 
originates  in  childhood  through  example  or  the  suggestion 
of  lewd  adults,  and  not  infrequently  it  arises  from  undue 
attention  to  the  special  organs,  owing  to  an  irritation  or 
excitement  resulting  from  morbid  excretions,  worms 
from  the  rectum,  irritating  clothing,  etc.  This  often  ex- 
ists with  an  inherited  nervous  irritability  associated  with 
nocturnal  incontinence  of  the  urine.  Unreasonable 
restraint  upon  enjoyable  general  exercise,  especially  of  a 
proper  social  character,  is  a  condition  strongly  conducive 
to  morbid  introspection  in  the  child  and  its  consequent 
evils. 

The  sexual  passion  once  formed,  and  associated 
with  instability  of  the  nervous  system,  inherited  or  ac- 
quired, is  liable  to  become  dominant  and  ruinous.  In  the 
most  pronounced  cases  of  the  less  common  forms  it  is 
almost  invariably  an  ingraft  on  bad  inheritance  from 
neurotic  stock.  In  some  cases  it  is  more  a  feature  of  in- 
sanity   than    a    cause.      Such    a    case    as   that  of  Alice 


CASES  X,    XI  AND  XII 


45 


Mitchell  at  Memphis,  who  recently  killed  her  chum,  Freda 
Ward,  when  she  learned  Freda  was  to  marry  a  young 
man  instead  of  herself,  is  essentially  one  of  intellectual 
aberration.  The  Chicago  letter-carrier,  who  in  1895 
shot  his  chum  in  the  open  street  because  of  lost  affection, 
had    previously    been    a    patient    in    an  insane  asylum. 


Charged  with  rape  three  times  and  convicted  twice.     Age  56  years. 
Short  stature  and  small  head. 

Because  of  the  predominance  of  the  mental  factor  in 
such  cases  the  recommendation  (by  friends)  of  fornication 
has  usually  proven  disastrous.  The  operation  of  desexing 
has  not  only  proven  to  be  one  of  the  most  fatal  opera- 
tions ventured,  but  as  a  rule  the  cases  that  survive 
only  become  mental  wrecks  with  the  old  desire  remaining. 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 


46  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

The  milder  forms  of  sexual  perversion,  of  one  kind  and 
another,  are  probably  more  common  than  generally  sup- 
posed. One  German  physician  is  said  to  have  met  with 
over  600  cases. 

Under  proper  treatment  a  cure  usually  results  in  a 
comparatively  short  time,  but  it  is  not  to  be  looked  for 
from  that  class  of  physicians  who  make  wild  claims  for 
a  mercenary  object. 

Case  X.  The  following  case  is  now  in  the  penitentiary 
serving  a  sentence  of  fifteen  years  on  a  charge  of  rape.  He 
is  now  40  years  of  age,  but  has  already  served  several  years 
of  his  sentence.  He  has  a  quiet,  frank  manner  and  mild 
countenance,  and  prior  to  his  arrest  was  a  foreman  in  a 
machine  shop,  earning  $1,500  a  year  because  of  his  ex- 
ceptional skill,  which  he  has  also  demonstrated  in  the 
machine  shop  of  the  prison.  His  skill  seems  to  haye 
been  intuitively  acquired,  for  he  remarked  that  he  "  never 
learnt  his  trade,  but  just  went  right  at  it." 

It  seems  he  spontaneously  began  the  habit  of  self- 
abuse  at  1 1  years  of  age  and  has  failed  to  stop 
it  ever  since,  although  married  three  times.  Says 
he  was  always  retiring  in  his  habits  and  bashful, 
as  also  was  his  brothers,  and  took  but  little  inter- 
est in  the  common  sports  of  boyhood.  Lewd  con- 
versation always  disgusted  him.  He  evinced  a  great 
desire  to  be  cured  of  his  weakness  as  he  is  anxious  "  to 
become  a  man  yet "  and  accomplish  some  advance  in  his 
chosen  line.  His  unfortunate  habit  has  several  times 
rendered  him  insane,  once  when  23  years  of  age  and 
living  with  his  first  wife.     This  spell  lasted  five  weeks, 


CASES  X,    XI  AND  XII.  4/ 

during  most  of  which  time  he  was  too  demented  to  attend 
to  his  meals  when  called  to  them  by  his  wife.  Since  he 
entered  the  penitentiary  he  had  to  be  sent  to  an  insane 
asylum  for  three  weeks  for  the  same  cause.  A  sister 
was  at  one  time  sent  to  an  insane  asylum  and  his  mother 
also  had  peculiar  mental  spells,  though  never  sent  to  an 
asylum.  Thus  it  is  evident  he  is  from  neurotic  stock, 
which  largely  accounts  for  his  spells  of  insanity  and  his 
failure  to  arrest  his  habit.  His  general  health  is  good 
and  he  had  no  noteworthy  physical  abnormalities. 

He  is  fond  of  reading  books  on  his  business  and  the 
higher  class  of  novels.  Says  he  never  took  any  stock  in  re- 
ligion because  he  knew  so  many  hypocrites,  but  believes 
in  a  God  and  a  future  state.  He  claims  the  charge  against 
him  was  untrue  and  maliciously  concocted  by  his  third 
wife  and  the  alleged  victim,  who  he  says  was  only  a  foster 
daughter  of  his,  as  his  first  wife  gave  birth  to  her  six 
months  after  marriage.  Whether  his  story  is  true  or  not 
it  has  been  found  that  about  eight  cases  in  every  ten 
charges  of  rape  have  been  subsequently  found  to  be  false 
either  by  confession  or  more  evidence.  Girls  about 
puberty  who  come  from  neurotic  stock  often  have  pecu- 
liar imaginations  of  a  sexual  nature  and  sometimes  make 
and  maintain  charges  of  a  plausible  form,  but  which  are 
untrue  in  the  main  point 

Case  XI.  The  following  illustrates  a  more  aberrant 
form  of  sexual  perversion,  the  case  being  recently  nar- 
rated by  two  eminent  London  physicians.  It  is  a  gentle- 
man 60  years  of  age,  who  had  an  exceptionally  brilliant 
career  both  at  college  and  in  his  profession  until  some- 


48  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

thing  happened  which  retired  him  to  comparative  soh- 
tude  with  the  companionship  of  an  old  man-servant 
and  his  family.  In  his  early  college  days  he  drank  sot- 
tishly,  at  times,  but  always  alone,  yet  it  was  not  until 
after  his  retirement  that  his  debauches  became  compli- 
cated with  manifestations  of  sexual  perversion. 

At  intervals  of  a  few  weeks  he  would  leave  home  sudden- 
ly without  notice  or  preparation  and  be  found  later  at  some 
disreputable  haunt  surrounded  by  youths  of  the  lowest 
class  and  the  most  abominable  propensities,  making  him- 
self liable  to  criminal  prosecution.  After  one  of  these 
debauches  he  was  examined  by  two  eminent  alienists, 
but  they  failed  to  discover  in  his  conversation  any  evi- 
dence of  his  mental  defect  or  disorder.  He  was  rational, 
courteous,  gentlemanly  and  impressed  one  as  being  a 
man  of  acute  intellect  and  a  thorough  man  of  the  world. 
He  was  neither  excited,  nor  depressed,  nor  suspicious, 
nor  irritable,  nor  confused,  nor  did  he  display  any  men- 
tal peculiarity.  But  his  habit  of  writing  numerous  letters 
to  his  associates  in  vice,  letters  of  the  most  revolting 
description,  in  which  he  described  in  the  plainest  terms 
and  with  the  most  unctuous  delight,  the  practices  in 
which  he  and  they  were  accustomed  to  indulge. 

Many  of  these  letters  were  openly  lying  about  the  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  house  where  anyone  could  see  them.  He 
also  appeared  wholly  insensible  to  the  turpitude  of  his 
conduct,  though  he  was  fully  sensible  to  the  danger 
of  his  being  prosecuted  by  the  law  for  his  vile  acts. 
A  third  peculiarity  was  the  astoundingly  voluminous 
character     of     his     correspondence,     which     was    well 


CASES  X,   XI  AND  XII.  49 

written,  grammatical,  coherent  and  pertinent  to  the 
subject. 

Some  months  after  he  had  been  declared  insane,  he 
was  the  subject  of  a  trial  before  a  chancery  judge,  who 
declared  his  insanity  proved  up  to  the  hilt,  although  the 
only  additional  fact  of  consequence  proved  at  this  trial 
was  that  the  patient  had  allowed  a  young  lad  to  obtain 
a  great  influence  over  him  and  had  not  only  given  the 
lad  large  sums  of  money,  but  had  placed  himself  largely 
under  the  lad's  control  and  ordered  his  conduct  much  as 
the  lad  directed  him. — [Journal  of  Mental  Science,  Jan- 
uary 1896,  p.  9.] 

Case  XII.  A  young  man  was  sentenced  to  imprisonment 
with  hard  labor  for  indecent  habits  toward  boys.  In 
boyhood  he  fell  over  a  staircase  and  injured  his  skull. 
He  was  picked  up  in  unconsciousness  and  bleeding  from 
the  ears.  Since  that  time  his  mother  noticed  a  change 
in  his  conduct.  He  became  a  confirmed  masturbator 
and  early  showed  an  indifference  to  the  society  of  the 
opposite  sex.  A  few  years  ago  he  began  disgusting 
habits  with  boys  and  acquired  a  perverted  feeling  toward 
women.  His  misery  increased  when  he  learned  the 
police  were  inquiring  about  him  and  he  obtained  poison 
to  kill  himself.  In  despair  he  went  to  a  metropolitan 
physician  and  told  him  part  of  his  story.  The  result 
was  he  became  a  voluntary  patient  in  an  insane 
asylum,  but  was  later  arrested  and  removed  by  the  police 
for  his  previous  indecent  practices.  Owing  to  the  legal 
view  of  insanity  he  was  convicted  and  sentenced  to 
punishment. 


50  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

His  father  was  an  inebriate  and  died  young.  His  only 
sister  was  most  immoral,  but  his  only  brother  remained 
respectable. 


CASE  XIII.  SI 


CASE  XIII— INEBRIETY. 

The  intoxicated  person,  like  the  lunatic  and  the  crimi- 
nal, is  anti-social,  that  is  to  say,  his  conduct  is  against 
the  peace  and  good  order  of  society,  either  in  a  negative 
or  a  positive  way.  For  this  reason  he  is  liable  to  receive 
a  fine  or  imprisonment  as  a  **  disorderly." 

The  remarkable  hold  that  the  drink  habit  obtains 
on  some  persons  has  been  strikingly  illustrated 
by  two  notorious  cases  across  the  water,  Ellen 
Sweeney  and  Jane  Cakebread.  The  former  has 
been  convicted  in  Swansea,  Wales,  279  times  ; 
and  the  latter,  now  past  sixty  years  of  age,  has 
been  convicted  in  London,  England,  288  times  for 
drunkenness.  All  city  prisons  have  their  inebriate  re- 
peaters, and,  as  I  have  stated  elsewhere,  women  are 
much  more  prone  to  "repeat"  than  are  men.  To  a 
certain  extent  alcoholic  drinks  have  much  the  same 
effects  on  all  persons.  Exact  methods  of  experimenta- 
tion demonstrate  conclusively  that  in  the  excitement 
stage  of  "drink,"  the  thoughts  are  really  slower,  while 
the  individual  thinks  they  are  faster  than  before,  and 
also  while  he  thinks  he  is  stronger  he  is  actually  weaker 
than  he  was  before.  Its  effect  in  producing  a  change  of 
ideas  by  disconnecting  their  finer  associations,  accounts 
for  this  imposition  on  the  subject. 

The  excitement  from  the  first  glass  is  due  to 
paralysis,  in  some  degree,  of  the  complicated  check- 
ing   apparatus    which     usually    controls    instinct,    im- 


52  CRIME  AND  CRIMINAL?. 

pulse  and  thought.  While  "drink"  causes  disease,  a 
diseased  condition,  inherited  or  acquired,  very  often  in- 
duces to  "  drink,"  and  thus  the  one  evil  begets  the  other. 
In  habitual  drunkards  there  is  a  nervous  instability  de- 
veloped, w^hich,  with  some  form  of  demoralization,  turns 
the  habit  into  a  second  nature.  Many  victims  of  drink 
are  naturally  quite  honorable,  owing  to  their  education 
ai  d  beliefs. 

Just  the  other  day  I  was  accosted  on  the  street  with  a 
very  polite  '*how  do  you  do,  doctor,"  by  a  neatly  attired, 
respectable  looking,  middle  aged  woman.  I  recognized 
her  as  a  person  I  had  met  a  few  weeks  before  in  a  police 
station,  the  hospitality  of  which  she  had  been  forced 
against  her  will  to  accept.  I  had  been  told  she  was  an 
"old  timer"  through  drink,  but  otherwise  a  respectable 
and  honorable  person.  She  had  been  brought  to  the 
police  station  at  intervals,  usually  short,  for  about 
twenty  years. 

She  is  now  forty-three  years  of  age,  and,  although 
stout  and  strong  looking  she  has  several  physical 
infirmities,  an  increasing  dropsy  being  one.  She  is  a 
laundress  by  occupation  and  was  never  married.  She 
has  a  slight  Scotch  accent  and  mannerism  but  her  face 
is  distinctly  Hibernian.  It  seems  her  parents  moved 
from  Ireland  to  a  Scotch  mining  village,  twenty  miles 
from  Glasgow,  where  she  was  born.  Her  parents  were 
Roman  Catholics,  industrious,  orderly  and  kind,  and  for 
the  most  part  temperate  in  the  use  of  drink.  At  festive 
times,  such  as  Christmas,  it  was  common  for  them  to 
drink  "a  little  too  freely,"  and  indulge  the  children  with 


CASE  XIII. 


53 


some  also.  She  was  brought  up  a  strict  Roman  Cath- 
olic, attendmg  none  but  a  school  of  that  church,  and  as 
there  was  only  one  such  school  for  three  parishes  she 
got  but  little  schooling,  owing  to  the  distance  and  the 
weather.  She  says  she  has  always  believed  in  her  early 
religious  precepts. 


A  type  of  "the  tough"  inebriate  and  abandon.    Twenty-four  years  of  age. 


When  nineteen  years  of  age  she  came  to  Ameri- 
ca, accompanied  by  another  sister  and  an  older 
brother,  and  at  once  became  a  laundress,  though 
she  has  since  been,  off  andon,  occupied  at  housekeeping. 
She  says  it  is  now  nineteen  years  since  she  first  got 
badly  intoxicated,  which  resulted  from  a  generous  act  on 


54  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

the  part  of  her  lady  employer,  who  insisted  on  her  tak- 
ing a  drink  because  she  was  "working  too  hard." 

At  first  her  drinking  habit  seemed  to  be  induced  by  as- 
sociation and  a  desire  to  be  sociable,  but  gradually  she  got 
to  drinking  alone.  Bourbon  whisky  is  her  usual  "drink," 
two  "drinks"  of  which  will  make  her  "feel  happy,"  as 
she  says,  for  a  little  while,  and  then  she  soon  feels 
wretched.  For  the  past  six  years  she  has  observed  that 
three  glasses  of  whisky  has  a  * '  crazing  effect"  upon  her, 
making  her  do  things  she  is  ashamed  of  afterwards.  At 
these  times  she  will  visit  her  friends  and  places  she 
would  not  enter  in  her  sober  senses.  After  a  hard 
drinking  spell,  she  usually  experiences  such  an  intense 
aversion  for  drink,  so  that,  as  she  says,  "nothing  can 
hire  her  to  take  a  drink." 

She  has  been  in  the  bridewell  twelve  times 
that  she  can  remember,  and  in  the  police  station 
many  times  more.  She  says  her  debts  don't  exceed 
$3.00,  and  she  seems  to  have  but  little  difficulty  in  se- 
curing work  when  she  is  sober. 

At  Duxbridge,  four  miles  from  Rigate  station,  in  Eng- 
land, there  is  a  farm  colony  open  for  inebriate  women. 
It  is  composed  of  cottages  to  accommodate  six  persons 
each  and  a  medical  attendant,  but  the  present  capacity 
of  the  colony  is  only  for  fifty  persons.  They  are  prop- 
erly classified  and  given  dairy  work,  gardening,  fruit 
raising,  etc.,  to  engage  them  as  much  as  possible  in  the 
fresh  air.  It  is  reported  a  great  success  and  is  regarded 
as  marking  a  step  in  advance  for  inebriates,  as  did  the 
Elmira  Reformatory  for  the  criminal  classes. 


CASE  XIV.  55 


CASE  XIV— ROBBERY. 

Since  the  Civil  War,  insanity  has  made  great  strides 
among  the  negroes,  as  also  have  consumption,  scrofula 
and  most  so- called  diseases  of  civilization.  In  i860 
Georgia  had  one  insane  colored  person  to  each  10,574 
of  the  population,  but  in  1890  the  proportion  was  one 
to  943.  Consumption,  which  was  once  hardly  known 
among  the  colored  people,  is  now  proportionately  nearly 
three  times  more  frequent  than  it  is  among  the  whites, 
while  scrofula  is  still  more  prevalent. 

Insanity,  consumption  and  scrofula  are  closely  allied 
diseases  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  in  eight  of 
the  large  North  American  insane  asylums,  an  average  of 
27  per  cent,  of  their  inmates  die  of  chronic  lung  diseases. 
But  this  fact  is  somewhat  explained  by  the  enforced 
monotony,  the  confinement  and  the  close  association  of 
asylum  inmates,  while  the  other  fact  is  partly  explained 
by  the  incapacity  of  the  servile  nature  to  cope  with  the 
perplexities  and  evils  of  a  complicated  civilization. 

According  to  Pitt  Dillingham,  in  a  recent  number  of  the 
Yale  Review,  the  negroes  of  the  South  are  rapidly  quitting 
their  farms  to  become  hired  men.  Thus  we  have  a  greater 
proportion  of  colored  delinquents  due  to  an  imposed  de- 
generacy which  lowers  the  brain  tone  and  renders  them 
subjective  to  fortuitous  and  unfortunate  circumstances 
Yet  there  are  many  bright  exceptions  who  exemplify 
what  sound  precept  and  judicious  patronage  can  accom- 
plish for  beings  of  rudimentary  s'mplicity. 


56  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

Mr.  Geo.  R.  Stetson,  of  Washington,  D.C. ,  has  shown 
[Psychological  Review,  May  1897]  by  experiments  on 
one  thousand  school  children  that  the  blacks  are  about 
as  good  at  memorizing  as  the  whites  and  only  average 
about  one  and  a  half  years  behind  the  whites  in  school 
attainments. 

Case  XIV  is  a  female  robber  of  the  most  vicious  char- 
acter and  a  type  of  what  is  known  in  police  circles  as 
the  "strong  arm  "  or  female  "  hold  up,"  who  mostly  op- 
erate in  dark  or  degraded  spots  and  live  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Harrison  street  police  station,  the  vilest 
locality  in  Chicago.  She  is  a  negress,  24  years  of  age, 
V  X)f  medium  height  and  robust  build  and  form,  with  very 
,  coarse  facial  features  atid  Skin,  giving  her  a  libidinous 
\llook  to  a  brutish  degree.  Her  eyes  have  a  peculiar  leer 
land  their  whites  have  a  striking  sheen,  showing  forth  an 
intensely  lecherous  nature. 

Her  first  attitude,  at  our  meeting,  was  that  of 
utter  abandonment,  declaring  that  she  would  not 
give  up  her  career  if  she  could.  In  conversation  she 
was  entirely  unreserved,  quick  to  perceive  and  prompt 
and  emphatic  in  leply,  while  an  undercurrent  of  emo- 
tional activity  pervaded  her  manner.  She  has  been  nine 
years  in  criminal  life,  eight  of  which  she  has  been  high- 
way robber  and  everything  vile  that  goes  with  it. 

Her  mother  died  of  consumption  when  she  was  4  years 
of  age,  and  a  year  later  her  father,  who  lived  in  an  In- 
diana city,  sent  her  to  live  with  a  widowed  aunt  in 
Chicago,  a  devout  Christian  woman  who  did  washing  for 
a  living.     Her  aunt  sent  her  to  both  secular  and  Sunday 


CASE  XIV. 


57 


day  schools  until  she  was  twelve  years  of  age.  At  four- 
teen years  of  age  she  entered  the  employ  of  a  well-to-do 
family,  having  the  charge  of  two  small  children.  Here 
she  was  frequently  given  a  dollar  to  spend  for  the  chil- 
dren when  out  with  them,  and  got  in  the  habit  of  keeping 
part  of  the  money  for  herself. 


CASE  XIV. 
Thief,  abandon,  and  opium  fiend. 

On  one  occasion  she  kept  the  entire  amount  and  when 
called  to  account  for  it,  she  failed  to  explain  or  ask  for- 
giveness and  so  left  her  situation  somewhat  indifferent 
about  the  matter.  She  was  afraid  to  return  to  her  pious 
aunt  and  had  no  other  situation  in  view  and  so  she 
deliberately  started  "on  the  town,"  as  she  said.  She 
had  previously  fallen  to  the  wiles  of  a  man. 


58  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

About  a  year  after  she  started  "on  the  town "  she 
began  the  use  of  opium,  smoking  and  eating  it.  Another 
female  inmate  of  her  abode  told  her  its  use  would  bring 
luck,  so  she  spent  a  day  in  a  "  hop  joint "  smoking  opium 
until  night  came.  On  leaving  the  place  and  only  a  few 
doors  from  it  she  met  a  well  dressed  man  who  accosted 
her,  she  says,  and  whom  she  engaged  in  conversation  and 
in  a  few  moments  she  induced  him  to  enter  a  saloon  at 
hand,  going  into  it  by  a  side  hallway.  Here  she  observed 
his  money  when  he  paid  for  the  "drinks"  and  so, 
when  they  re-entered  the  hallway,  she  detained  him  by 
conversation  and  quietly  relieved  him  of  his  purse,  con- 
taining $625  and  experienced  no  farther  trouble  about 
the  theft,  for  the  reason,  she  presumes,  that  the  well 
dressed  man's  "  respectability  "  was  worth  more  than  the 
money.  Thus,  she  thought,  opium  brought  her  luck, 
and  so  she  has  indulged  in  it  ever  since. 

This  success  was  the  beginning  of  more  active, 
systematic,  and  daring  robbery  practices.  But  she 
did  not  always  fare  so  well  in  her  efforts.  Less 
than  a  year  ago  she  met  a  man  under  the  Twelfth 
street  viaduct  near  State  street  and  got  him  inter- 
ested. He  was  an  object  of  unusual  interest,  as 
a  side  pocket  in  his  trousers  was  noticed  to  be 
guarded  by  a  safety  pin  which  she  soon  released,  but 
when  she  secured  the  contents  of  his  pocket  she  was 
compelled  to  throw  them  behind  her  victim  so  as  not  to 
be  detected  by  him.  This  act  scattered  the  "greenbacks" 
and  also  called  his  attention  by  their  noise.  Both  made 
a  rush  at  the  money,  she  escaping  with  $530.      The  vie- 


CASE  XIV.  59 

tim  reported  to  the  police  and  through  his  description  of 
her  she  was  arrested  by  two  detectives.  She  denied  the 
charge  and  finally,  she  says,  the  officers  said  to  her 
"  Now  B —  if  you  will  do  the  right  thing  by  us  we  will, 
do  the  right  thing  by  you."  The  affair  ended  by  her 
giving  them  $200,  for  which  the  detectives  got  rid  of  the 
complainant  and  she  escaped  punishment. 

She  has  been  arrested  a  vast  number  of  times  for 
robbery,  assault  and  disorderly  conduct,  and  has  usually 
escaped  sentence  when  she  had  money.  She  has  been 
six  times  in  the  bridewell  and  from  ten  to  twenty 
times  in  the  county  jail.  Her  thefts  have  been  mostly  of 
money,  being  afraid  of  the  convicting  power  of  other 
articles.  Her  present  imprisonment  is  for  assaulting  a 
female  associate  in  a  fit  of  jealousy  over  a  colored  male 
gambler  they  were  both  supporting. 

She  was  the  only  child  and  in  her  fifth  year  her  mother 
died  of  consumption,  as  also  did  most  of  her  relatives. 
Her  father,  who  was  a  slave,  is  still  living,  and  she  says 
he  has  held  the  same  position  for  53  years.  Like  her 
aunt  in  Chicago,  he  is  a  pious,  temperate  and  industri- 
ous person  and  a  member  of  a  Baptist  church.  She  says 
she  thought  when  a  child  she  would  like  a  **  sporting" 
life  because  those  in  it  were  well  dressed  and  seemed  to 
have  such  an  easy  time.  But  she  thinks  there  must  be 
an  end  to  her  course  although  she  doesn't  see  anyway  out. 

She  believes  in  God  and  a  future  state  of  rewards 
and  punishments.  She  has  been  in  the  habit  of  reading 
sensational  novels,  and  although  she  has  used  opium 
constantly  for  eight  years  and  has  been  deprived  of  it  for 


6o  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

the  past  several  weeks,  she  suffers  no  distress  in  anyway 
now,  and  is  known  as  the  "Topsy"  of  the  prison  be- 
cause of  her  pecuhar  and  Hvely  antics  occurring  from 
time  to  time.  She  says  opium  makes  her  bolder  to  act 
out  a  plan,  which  means,  scientifically  stated,  that  like 
most  so-called  stimulants,  it  dulls  the  finer  sensibilities 
and  so  releases  the  baser  desires,  which  are  restrained 
by  the  ordinary  conscious  state  of  mind  or  circum- 
spection. She  thinks  if  she  had  remained  with  her 
father  she  would  have  been  all  right. 

Her  head  is  of  common  size  and  shape,  but  her  body 
tone  is  bad,  as  revealed  by  her  heart  sounds  and  her 
depraved  appearance. 

THE    ANALYSIS. 

(i)  Inherited  defect  of  nerve  tone  indicated  by  very 
coarse  appearance  and  consumption  on  her  mother's  side. 

(2)  Early  loss  of  parental  care. 

(3)  Evils  of  bad  locality  acting  in  childhood. 

(4)  Somewhat  indifferent  care  by  a  "very"  re- 
ligious guardian. 

(5)  Bad  influence  of  sensational  novels. 

(6)  Probable  injudicious  consideration  by  employers. 
(Employers  have  the  responsibility  of  moral  guardians  to 
a  certain  extent). 

(7)  No  distinct  moral  precepts,  and  consequently  the 
exactions  of  rectitude  were  irksome  in  the  presence  of 
allurements  to  a  so-called    "easy  life." 

(8)  Once  started  "on  the  town"  rapid  progress  to 
utter  abandonment. 


CASE  XV.  6 1 


CASE  XV     PROSTITUTION. 

Case  XV  is  a  woman  who  deserted  her  husband  in 
another  city  five  years  ago.  She  is  now  thirty-three 
years  of  age,  received  but  Httle  school  instruction  when 
a  child  and  says  she  never  reads  anything,  and  that  all 
she  cares  for  is  her  living  and  company.  She  is  of  me- 
dium height,  rather  stout,  and  has  a  wild,  coarse  and 
vicious  appearance,  a  sample  of  the  most  abandoned 
female  offender.  When  I  questioned  her  in  prison  she 
was  prompt  and  outspoken  but  suspicious,  with  a  coarse, 
loud  voice  and  an  emphatic  emotional  manner. 

For  a  number  of  years  she  has  spent  most  of  her  time  in 
prison  for  different  charges,  and  is  noted  for  her  violent 
temper  and  conduct,  when  no  language  is  too  vile  for  her  to 
use  and  nothing  too  strong  to  resist.  She  is  a  German  and 
came  to  America  when  seventeen  years  of  age.  Later 
she  married  an  artisan,  whom  she  deserted  on  account 
of  quarrels  and  a  mother-in-law  making  "  things  too  hot 
for  her." 

When  she  came  to  Chicago  she  had  no  money 
and  so  took  to  "the  street"  and  robbery  to  obtain  her 
living.  She  says  she  has  stolen  as  much  as  $171.00 
from  the  pocket  of  a  victim,  and  claims  that  whenever 
she  is  arrested  with  money  she  can  buy  her  freedom. 
She  is  a  heavy  drinker  of  whisky  and  says  that  when  a 
child  her  parents  gave  her  beer  to  drink  three  times  a 
day.  In  prison  she  frequently  vents  her  fury  at  the 
most   kindly   and   considerate   of  matrons,  without   any 


62  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

apparent  provocation.  When  asked  what  her  religion 
was  she  replied  she  was  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  emphati- 
cally asserted  she  believed  in  that  religion  yet. 

Six  months  later  I  was  visiting  a  police  station  when 
she  was  brought  in  intoxicated  and  bleeding  from  a  face 
wound,  which  I  undertook  to  dress.  After  a  little  con- 
versation in  a  sympathetic  way,  I  remarked  that  she 
looked  well  enough  to  go  to  church,  and  I  then  pro- 
ceeded to  open  up  her  religious  feelings,  when  the  fact 
became  quite  evident  that  she  was  deeply  conscious  of 
digressions  from  her  originally  strong  religious  convic- 
tions, though  probably  vague,  and  that  she  now  felt 
herself  in  a  hopeless  fix.  Such  is  one  of  the  "hardest" 
cases  in  w'nat  is  known  as  the  **  levee"  district  in  Chicago. 
She  evidently  suffers  from  "alcoholic  brain,"  begun  in 
childhood  by  her  parents  giving  her  beer. 


CASE  XVI.  63 


CASE  XVI— AN  AGED  SHOPLIFTER. 

According  to  statistics,  as  woman  encroaches  upon 
man's  sphere,  she  becomes  more  and  more  Hable  to  be- 
come insane  or  to  commit  crimes.  In  the  Baltic  prov- 
inces of  Russia,  where  women  commonly  share  the 
occupations  of  men,  their  delinquencies  are  particularly 
numerous,  whereas  in  Spain,  where  women  are  much 
more  domestic,  crime  is  very  small.  The  proportion  of 
criminal  women  to  criminal  men  in  France  is  about  i 
to  4,  in  England  i  to  5,  and  in  the  United  States  i  to 
12.  According  to  Marro,  their  age  of  maximum  criminality 
is  thirty-five,  while  it  is  ten  years  less  for  meirt  Women 
are  much  more  liable  to  relapse  than  men.  In  England, 
40  per  cent,  of  the  women  sent  to  prison  had  previously 
been  convicted  ten  or  more  times.  Girls  are  about 
twice  as  liable  to  relapse  as  boys. 

The  following  case  has  been  a  "repeater"  for 
many  years  and  is  now  in  the  penitentiary. 
She  is  sixty-eight  years  of  age  and  has  served 
sentences  in  the  penitentiaries  of  Blackwell's  Island, 
Sing  Sing,  Joliet,  and  probably  elsewhere.  This  is 
her  third  term  in  Joliet.  She  has  also  served  several 
sentences  in  the  Cook  county  jail.  She  is  one  of  a  gang 
of  fourteen  or  more  habitual  thieves,  some  of  whom  own 
considerable  real  estate  in  Chicago,  supposed  to  have 
been  acquired  from  the  profits  of  robberies.  I  first 
met  Bertha  while  she  was  serving  a  jail  sentence  now 
more   than   a  year   ago.       When  she  was   asked    what 


64  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

brought  her  there  she  broke  into  tears  and  declared  she 
"couldn't  help  it."  Six  or  eight  months  later  she  was 
under  arrest  again  at  the  Harrison  St.  police  station  for 
her  usual  crime,  shoplifting,  and  at  which  time  I  had  a 
long  talk  with  her  in  private. 

"Bertha"  came  to  America  from  a  German  village 
when  she  was  sixteen  years  old,  and  on  board  the  ocean 
ship  she  met  a  man  whom  three  months  later  she  mar- 
ried. He  was  a  tinsmith  by  trade  and  only  a  few  years 
older  than  herself.  They  lived  sixteen  years  -together 
when  they  separated,  and  he  was  later  killed  by  a  fall 
from  the  roof  of  a  house  he  was  working  on. 

She  recalls  as  her  first  theft  the  stealing  of  a  pocketful  of 
nuts  when  ayoung  girl  in  her  native  village.  It  seems  that 
a  few  minutes  after  the  theft  she  was  *  'conscience  smitten" 
on  passing  one  of  the  public  statues  of  Christ,  which  she 
says  are  quite  numerous  in  that  part  of  the  country.  On 
looking  at  the  statue's  face  she  felt  its  eyes  pierce  her 
with  condemnation  of  her  act,  whereupon  she  threw 
away  the  nuts.  Excepting  this  act,  she  says  she  was  a 
good  girl  while  in  Germany.  The  village  she  lived  in  in 
Germany  was  Roman  Catholic,  and  here  and  there,  at 
short  intervals,  were  statues  of  Christ  in  the  little  public 
squares  or  open  places.  Her  mother  died  two  years 
before  she  left  Germany  and  her  father  was  assassinated. 
She  is  one  of  a  family  of  six  sisters  and  three  brothers. 

She  claims  she  was  first  introduced  to  systematic 
thieving  by  a  female  acquaintance  in  New  York  who  had 
lots  of  nice  things  and  seemed  to  have  a  "good  time  "  by 
thieving  in  stores.      Says  she  knows  perfectly  well  that 


CASE   XVI.  '  65 

it  is  wrong  to  steal  from  anybody,  but  that  if  she  didn't 
"go  down  with  the  dogs  she  wouldn't  come  in  with  the 
police,"  or,  in  other  words,  the  need  of  money  and  the 
influence  of  association.  She  declares  that  she  prays 
every  night  but  hasn't  been  to  a  church  since  her  last 
time  in  the  penitentiary.     Says  a  church  would  fall  on 


CASE  XVI. 


her  because  of  her  wickedness  if  she  should  enter  one. 
She  seemed  greatly  impressed  with  a  priest  who  visits 
the  jail  because  of  his  expression  of  sadness  at  seeing 
her  return  to  jail.  Says  **his  words  pierced  her  like 
lightning."  She  told  the  judge  when  he  sentenced  her 
that  he  could  hang  her  if  he  chose.  I  have  not  the 
slightest  doubt  of  her  sincerity. 


66  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

During  my  interview  with  her  she  frequently  heaved 
a  deep  sigh  and  once  exclaimed  to  herself,  oh  dear  !  oh 
dear !  She  is  a  keen,  robust  and  vigorous  woman  for 
her  age,  and  evidently  of  a  passionate  disposition.  She 
admits  drinking  freely  at  times,  but  denies  having  other 
vices. 

She  says  that  if  she  had  her  liberty  and  her  choice  she 
would  return  to  her  native  village,  where  they  have  free 
homes  for  old  people.  The  gang  she  has  been  operating 
with,  range  in  their  ages  from  eighteen  to  forty-five  years, 
two  sons  of  one  of  her  sisters  being  engaged  in  selling 
the  goods  stolen.  Claims  she  never  stole  from  poor 
people.  She  is  now  in  the  Joliet  penitentiary,  and 
several  of  the  other  leaders  of  her  gang  have  also 
recently  been  taken  to  the  same  pla'X. 


CASE   XVII.  6^ 


CASE  XVII— A  YOUNG  SHOPLIFTER. 

The  value  of  an  examination  depends  much  upon  its 
method  and  manner. 

The  first  step  is  to  render  the  prisoner  subjective. 
This  is  done  by  a  kindly  manner  of  greeting,  expressed 
in  look,  word,  tone  and  gentle  bearing,  which  will  usual- 
ly preposses  the  subject  so  that  a  reserve  attitude,  if 
present,  is  soon  dispelled.  This  effect  is  enhanced  by 
privacy  of  interview,  a  brief  statement  of  a  laudable  pur- 
pose, and  the  promise  of  confidence  as  regards  name. 

At  first  the  inquiries  are  of  a  general  nature,  but  perr- 
sonal,  gradually  leading  to  special  points,  first  indirectly 
touching  upon  them,  all  the  time  keeping  up  an  unin- 
terrupted, but,  for  the  most  part,  easy  questioning, 
varied  from  time  to  time  with  short  discussions  for  the 
purpose  of  arresting  thought  in  a  particualar  direction, 
and  deciding  points. 

Talking  has  to  be  done  when  indications  of  "side 
thinking"  show  the  disposition  to  fabrication.  In  other 
words,  the  subject's  mind  must  be  kept  in  control,  and 
directed  both  inward  and  outward  without  his  realizing 
the  fact  at  the  time.  The  process  is  not  so  much  a  con- 
trolling of  the  subject  as  it  is  the  prevention  and  detec- 
tion of  deliberate  lying  or  exaggeration.  The  ground  of 
inquiry  is  again  more  or  less  covered  by  sallies  through 
side  and  back  doors,  so  to  speak,  for  the  purpose  of 
testing,  then  a  physical  examination  made. 

The  brighter  subjects  are  more  accessible  and  reliable 


68  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

than  the  commoner,  the  simpler,  or  the  half-crazy,  and 
while  an  examination  might  seem  to  a  bystander  com- 
monplace and  even  stupid,  it  will  always  succeed  in 
getting  many  facts  by  admission,  and  some  as  clear  by 
inference. 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  it  is  possible  in  a  half 
hour's  examination  to  learn  more  about  character  through 
the  light  of  physiology  and  psychology  than  is  ordinarily 
done  in  a  whole  lifetime  of  intimate  personal  association. 

Case  XVII  is  a  young  woman,  single,  20  years  of  age, 
and  a  native  of  Chicago!  For  the  last  three  years  she 
has  adopted -the  life  of  a  thief,  her  specialty  being  shop- 
lifting. She  has  been  in  the  bridewell  four  times  and  in 
the  county  jail  four  or  five  times.  She  has  a  decidedly 
pleasant  and  rather  intelligent  face,  with  a  tinge  of  the 
"fly"  expression,  blended  with  caution,  and  even  sug- 
gesting a  trace  of  modesty.  She  is  a  trifle  over  average 
brightness,  is  well  formed  and  plump,  and  has  a  frank 
and  sociable  disposition. 

She  began  crime  early  in  life.  When  her  mother  sent 
her  to  buy  cabbages  she  would  steal  the  cabbages  and 
keep  the  money,  not  because  she  never  got  any  spending 
money,  but  because  she  wanted  more.  At  10  years  of 
age  she  stole  $2.60  in  dimes  and  nickels  from  a  cup  in 
the  pantry  of  a  neighboring  woman,  who  kept  a  candy 
store.  At  1 1  years  of  age  she  stole  two  watches,  one 
the  day  after  the  other,  in  a  down-town  department 
store.  At  12  years  of  age  she  borrowed  $5  in  her 
mother's  name,  but  without  her  knowledge,  from  the 
wife  of  a  neighboring  saloon-keeper,  on  the  plea  that  it 


UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CASE  XVII. 


69 


was  required  to  save  a  brother's  membership  from 
lapsing  in  a  beneficial  society,  her  father  being  away  from 
home  at  the  time.  Her  father  died  in  1889  of  dropsy  at 
the  age  of  49,  and  her  mother  in  1 892  of  cancer,  at  the 
age  of  52.  Up  to  the  time  of  her  mother's  death  she 
remained  at  home  and  attended  school,  being  two  terms 
short  of  graduating. 


She  was  now  17  years  old,  and  says  that  because  she 
could  not  get  along  with  her  brothers  she  left  home  and 
joined  a  girl  schoolmate  in  systematic  thieving.  Her 
parents  were  strict  Catholics,  but  her  father  would  drink 
"a  little  too  much"  two  or  three  times  a  year.  She 
says  she  was  always  the   **  wild  child  of  the  family,"  in 


/O  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

which  there  were  five  bothers  and  three  sisters,  two  of 
the  brothers  being  older  than  herself. 

The  others  attended  Sunday-school  willingly,  but  she 
disliked  it,  and  would  play  truant  on  an  average  of  half 
the  time. 

But  she  has  never  doubted  as  to  God,  a  future  state, 
and  rewards  and  punishment.  She  never  read  novels  or 
much  of  anything  else. 

Speedily  she  and  her  schoolmate  pal  became  associ- 
ated with  a  number  of  more  experienced  thieves,  male 
and  female,  and  for  a  while  she  lived  with  one  of  the 
men  recently  tried  for  the  Marshall  murder.  She  thinks 
she  must  have  stolen  over  three  hundred  times,  mostly 
from  crowded  stores,  with  an  occasional  chance  at 
pocket-picking.  Such  articles  as  jewelry,  ornaments, 
silks,  dress  goods,  jackets,  and  even  hats  were  the  most 
common  objects  of  attraction.  She  was  usually  accom- 
panied by  another  woman  or  man,  and  would  slip  the 
articles  under  her  cape  or  some  other  convenient  gar- 
ment she  would  wear.  The  stolen  articles  were  sold  to 
some  of  the  many  "fences"  in  town. 

Like  Case  XVIII  she  says  the  business  of  stealing 
does  not  pay,  as  money  gotten  quickly  and  easily,  goes 
rapidly.  Although  she  at  first  said  stealing  was  all  right 
if  one  did  not  gel  caught,  yet  she  has  often  felt  her 
course  must  come  to  an  end  soon.  But  as  she  does  not 
know  what  kind  of  legitimate  work  she  can  do  and 
thinks  she  is  shut  off  from  procuring  an  acceptable  situa- 
tion, she  does  not  see  her  way  out  of  her  present  course. 
She  has    no  communication  with  any   members  of  her 


CASE   XVII.  71 

I  family,  and  is  under  obligations  to  other  crooks,  who 
'         seek  her  company. 

She  says  she  has  several  times  concluded  to  stop, 
when  some  one  would  come  along  and  suggest  another 
job. 

She  has  enjoyed  good  health  since  childhood,  but  her 
heart  has  a  weak  and  nervous  tone,  evidently  a  long 
standing  condition,  and  she  is  troubled  with  cold  feet 
and  hands.  She  is  easily  affected  by  alcoholics  and  so 
as  a  rule  she  drinks  but  little.  She  has  a  well-shaped 
and  medium  fair  head. 

The  case  described  is  summarized  as  follows: 

THE  ANALYSIS. 

(i)  Defective  nerve  tone,  inherited,  as  indicated 
chiefly  by  early  waywardness,  the  peculiar  tone  of  heart, 
cancer  in  mother,  etc. 

(2)  Injudicious  parentage,  presumably  by  father's 
occasional  drinking  to  excess  and  severities  of  mother 
exercised  without  due  reasoning  with  the  child. 

(3)  Evil  association  at  school  prevailing. 

(4)  Loss  of  controlling  interest  of  both  parents  at  a 
critical  age. 

(5)  Probable  harshness  of  older  brothers. 

(6)  No  restraining  principles  or  moral  precepts 
rationally  inculcated  and  made  distinct;  consequently — 

(7)  Evil  propensities  favored  by  bad  association. 

(8)  Later,  fascination  for  the  bright  and  daring  male 
thieves. 


^2 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


Ju.H 


Brain  of  Boza  a  Magyar,  descended  from  a  noted  family  of  robbers, 
and  was  condemned  for  robbery.  In  prison  he  was  good  natured.  Fif- 
ty-three years  of  age.     {Fi-otu  Prof.  Benedikt,  of  Vienna.) 


CASE   XVIII.  73 


CASE  XVIII— PICKPOCKET. 

Comparatively  few  habitual  criminals  are  "all  around 
criminals  " — ^that  is,  the  majority  of  them  have  special- 
ties in  which  they  excel,  or,  at  least,  practice  more  or 
less  exclusively,  as  they  are  most  frequently  known  to 
follow  particular  lines,  and  are  seldom  caught  in  others. 

It  has  been  said  "there  is  honor  among  thieves,"  but 
it  seems  to  be  a  kind  of  honor  with  which  circumstances 
have  much  to  do,  much  the  same  as  with  their  thefts. 
However,  some  of  them  do  have  a  sort  of  pride  which 
seems  to  grow  with  their  habits  and  success. 

An  amusing  story  was  told  me  by  one  of  the  oldest  and 
best  detectives  in  Chicago,  who,  for  certain  reasons,  has 
kept  in  touch  with  an  old-time  confidence  man  for  the 
last  twenty  years,  a  man  who  plies  his  "vocation" 
mostly  outside  the  city. 

This  confidence  man  regards  Sunday  as  sacred  and  a 
day  for  worship,  so  he  rests  from  his  professional  labors 
on  that  day,  to  attend  church  and  teach  a  Sunday-school 
class  in  a  suburb  of  Chicago.  One  day,  at  an  out-of- 
town  railway  station,  just  as  he  was  about  to  practice 
his  game  on  some  unwary  object  of  interest,  a  young 
man,  one  of  his  former  Sunday-school  pupils,  suddenly 
approached  him  with  a  genial  "how  do  you  do,"  which 
had  the  effect  of  spoiling  his  "business"  on  that  occasion. 

Case  XVIII,  a  pickpocket,  is  a  young  man  22  years  of 
age,  single,  under  medium  stature,  and  of  a  light  build. 


74  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

He  has  a  rather  bright  countenance,  of  a  gay  aspect,  and 
more  expressive  of  ready  wit  than  of  a  meditative  dis- 
position. His  eyes  are  keen  but  restless,  and  while  he 
could  not  be  called  nervous,  his  motions  indicate  an  un- 
conscious sense  of  restraint,  as  if  he  was  of  active  habits 
and  constantly    "on  the  go." 

His  manner  and  make-up  indicate  alertness  and 
agility,  his  perception  is  quick,  and  his  will  is  prompt, 
while  his  disposition  is  frank  and  sociable.  His  body 
tone  is  good,  as  indicated  by  the  rhythm  of  his  heart  and 
his  general  appearance.  His  head  is  well  shaped  and 
above  the  average  size.  He  has  never  been  sick  since 
he  was  a  babe.  There  is  nothing  whatever  about  him 
that  a  physician  could  call  abnormal,  yet  the  above  de- 
scription is  not  exactly  that  of  a  well-balanced  person. 

He  differs  from  the  normal  individual  much  as  the 
precocious  child,  tinged  with  a  restless  disposition, 
differs  from  the  standard  type.  He  has  evidently 
"grown  up"  that  way  as  a  product  of  something  that 
has  constituted  his  environment,  which,  as  before  stated, 
includes  what  is  called  heredity.  It  is  an  instability  that 
antagonizes  sustained  attention  and  meditation.  The 
precocious  child  is  usually  an  abnormal  creature,  and, 
as  a  rule,  sooner  or  later  loses  in  the  race  with  the 
standard  or  well-balanced  child  for  the  attainment  of  the 
higher  accomplishments,  as  much,  if  not  more,  than  it 
excelled  in  the  petty  accomplishments  of  childhood.  In 
fact,  precocious  children  are  liable  to  insanity. 

These  facts  suggest  that  there  is  an  inwoven  fiber,  so 
to  speak,  of  instability   in   the   nervous  organization   of 


CASE  XVIII. 


75 


those  we  cannot  regard  as  exactly  diseased  nor  as  ex- 
actly normal,  and  which  is  most  marked  in  some  persons, 
but  in  others  shades  down  towards  the  normal.  In  other 
words,  there  is  a  subtle  constitutional  flaw  which  arti- 
ficial environment  has  favored  or  fostered. 

Our  present  subject   is  a  notorious  thief  of  a  petty 


CASE  XVIII. 

order.  He  has  been  three  times  in  the  bridewell,  three 
times  in  the  county  jail,  and  has  been  arrested  on 
suspicion  times  almost  without  number,  owing  to  a 
standing  order  for  his  arrest  at  sight.  He  admits  he  has 
picked  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  pockets  and  claims  he  has 
confined  himself  to  that  line  of  crime. 

His  mother  is  living  and  keeping  house  for  him  and  his 


76  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

brothers.  She  is  in  good  health,  but  his  father  died  five 
years  ago  as  a  result  of  his  being  "  held  up  "  one  night. 
His  father  was  a  temperate,  industrious  and  church- 
going  person,  as  is  also  his  mother,  who,  he  says,  has 
always  treated  him  *' right."  He  has  three  living 
brothers,  but  a  sister  is  dead. 

He  was  born  in  Chicago  and  attended  school,  both 
church  and  public,  being  graduated  at  the  latter.  On 
leaving  school  he  sold  newspapers  and  for  several  years 
held  light  jobs  in  different  offices.  Then  he  and  his 
brothers  started  a  business  for  themselves  at  which  he 
sometimes  cleared  $25  a  week. 

It  was  about  a  year  after  his  father's  death  that  he  be- 
gan to  start  out  "lively"  with  ''hard"  company. 
The  first  time  he  picked  a  pocket  he  was  arrested.  It 
seems  he  boarded  a  West  Side  street  car  which  was 
crowded,  saw  a  purse  projecting  from  the  pocket  of  a 
woman  standing  on  the  platform,  nabbed  it,  and  im- 
mediately left  the  car  while  it  was  in  motion.  He 
walked  down  to  the  next  corner,  when  he  saw  the 
shadow  of  a  detective  approaching  from  behind  to  arrest 
him.  He  made  a  rush  down  the  street  and  at  the  same 
time  threw  the  stolen  purse  over  a  fence.  He  was 
caught  and  the  purse  found.  It  contained  25  cents. 
He  was  discharged  for  lack  of  prosecution. 

His  first  experience,  though  a  failure  of  the  worst 
kind,  only  had  the  effect  of  deciding  him  to  be  more 
guarded  in  the  future,  for  his  conscience  didn't  ''bother 
him."  He  soon  after  got  to  "operating"  with  gangs 
of  three  and   four   working   together,  one  of  the   gang 


CASE  XVII.  TJ 

picking  pockets  while  the  other  three  closed  in  upon  the 
victim  so  as  to  hide  the  "operator's"  hands  and  dis- 
tract attention  if  necessary.  Even  small  boys  go  in 
groups  pocket-picking. 

In  discussing  the  inducing  conditions  which  led  to  his 
practice  of  picking  pockets,  he  thought  that,  although 
he  was  none  too  good  to  do  it  before,  it  was  all  the  re- 
sult of  association,  as  thieving  was  not  a  natural  pro- 
clivity in  him.  His  locality  brought  him  in  contact 
with  those  who  made  money  that  way  and  they  seemed 
to  have  a  good  time. 

Some  of  these  thieves  are  almost  '  'crazy, "  he  says,  with 
the  fascination  that  seems  to  be  in  the  risk  of  getting 
caught  and  making  a  good  "catch."  They  are  con- 
stantly on  the  alert  and  think  of  hardly  anything  else. 

He  claims  he  never  stole  a  watch  nor  pilfered  from 
poor  people.  At  his  own  legitimate  business,  in  which 
he  employed  others,  he  frequently  cleared  $25  a  week, 
and  did  not  require  to  give  it  much  personal  attention, 
so  that  he  was  at  liberty  to  engage  in  picking  pockets. 
Six  months  ago  he  determined  to  break  from  the  habit 
and  be  good,  but  the  police  had  to  arrest  him  on  sus- 
picion. He  was  once  in  the  Harrison  Street  Police 
Station  for  ten  days  before  he  was  booked  with  a  charge. 

But  putting  one  thing  with  another,  he  says,  it  doesn't 
pay,  and  there  isn't  much  money  in  it  at  the  best.  But 
he  has  most  of  the  time  felt  he  might  as  well  keep  on  at 
it  as  long  as  he  has  to  be  arrested  anyhow,  although,  in 
reality,  he  would  like  to  reform. 

From  a  reliable  source  I  learn  he   has   been  a  pick- 


y^  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

pocket  from  childhood,  as  have  also   his  brothers.      His 
parents  ignorant,  but  industrious  and  orderly. 

THE    ANALYSIS. 

(i)  Slight  inherited  instability,  expressed  by  restive 
movements  in  composed  situation. 

(2)  Somewhat  indifferent  parental  care. 

(3)  Loss  of  paternal  influence  at  a  critical  age,  pro- 
bably followed  by  increased  laxity  on  the  part  of  the 
mother,  who  depended  largely  on  him  for  her  support. 

(4)  No  purpose  in  hfe  ever  seriously  considered,  and 
consequently. 

(5)  Bad  associations  and  example  had  a  successful 
influence. 

(6)  No  trade  learned. 

(7)  His  nervous  energy,  which  is  rather  above  the 
common  proportion,  as  shown  by  form  and  size  of  head, 
ran  wild. 

(8)  Once  used  to  being  arrested,  he  becomes 
hardened  to  public  opinion. 


CASE   XIX.  79 


CASE  XIX— A  SAFE  BLOWER. 

As  no  mortal  can  be  perfect,  and  as  no  rational  being 
is  wholly  dead  to  conscience,  so  no  one  is  absolutely  all 
^ood  or  absolutely  all  bad.  Were  it  otherwise  than  this, 
personal  responsibility  could  not  be  attributed  to  the 
most  constant  and  worst  enemies  of  society. 

Where  weakness  does  not  explain  wickedness,  the 
psychology  of  criminality  is  a  question  of  the  nature  and 
degree  of  the  perception  of  first  principles — the  cloud- 
ing or  aborting  of  conscience.  For  in  the  knowledge  of 
right  and  wrong  there  is  a  vast  difference  between  an  in- 
telligent perception  of  the  **why  and  wherefore  "  of  a 
rule  or  a  dogma  and  the  mere  knowledge  of  its  existence 
in  common  usage.  The  one  kind  of  knowledge  con- 
tributes to  personal  character  and  disposition,  while  the 
other  is  nothing  but  a  flimsy  fence,  a  meaningless  form 
so  far  as  the  individual  knows.  In  other  words,  there 
are  many  degrees  of  knowledge. 

As  all  men  are  fundamentally  the  same,  conscience — 
which  is  the  product  of  cosmic  impressions  and  universal 
experiences — is  a  monitor  assured  to  all  and  is  in  all 
alike,  wherever  Nature  has  been  heeded.  It  becomes 
dull  or  distinct  according  to  the  environment — the  nature 
of  precept  and  the  force  of  example.  Thus  a  child  grows 
up  to  choose  the  right  or  the  wrong  just  as  conscience  is 
made  weak  or  strong,  until  finally  it  may  become  lost  to 
all  but  purely  selfish  ends — all  true  sense  of  right. 


8o  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

In  this  way  criminal  character  may  be  formed  while 
the  individual,  through  cunning  and  conformity  to  com- 
mon usage,  may  keep  within  the  social  circle. 

But  with  the  less  gifted  or  the  less  wary  it  turns  out 
otherwise,  as,  sooner  or  later,  their  plans  fail  and  they 
are  captured  as  criminals.  The  differences  between  a 
Napoleonic  ruler,  a  peculating  Alderman,  a  commercial 
knave,  and  a  midnight  burglar  are  only  differences  of 
ability  and  of  opportunity. 

Since  the  development  of  the  confirmed  criminal  im- 
plies a  slowly  induced  perversion  of  the  natural  process 
of  individual  evolution,  he  cannot,  strictly  speaking,  ba 
regarded  as  a  normal  person,  even  if  he  has  no  palpable 
physical  defect,  for  badness  of  character  cannot  be  a  cor- 
relative of  organic  soundness,  owing  to  the  mutual 
dependence  of  mind  and  body. 

The  abnormality  is  a  background  condition  too  deep 
and  subtle  to  be  made  manifest  to  the  senses.  Though 
some  of  the  worst  criminals  dissipate  but  little  in  the 
ordinary  ways,  yet  that  subtle  abnormality  within  them 
stamps  their  countenance  and  demeanor  by  what  may 
be  fittingly  called  the  delinquent  shadow.  When  con- 
trasted with  the  really  normal  personality — the  man  of 
strict  moral  integrity  or  even  the  good  man  with  a  per- 
sonal failing — the  symptomatic  evidence  of  the  criminal 
personality  will  be  discernible  to  the  discriminating 
observer  and  pyschologist  in  spite  of  his  best  looks, 
tact,  and  affability. 

By  Mr.  W.  A.  Pinkerton  I  am  told  that  the  most  desper- 
?ite  criminal  is  the  night  burglar,  who,  ninety-nine  times 


CASE  XIX. 


8i 


in  a  hundred,  will  shoot  to  kill.  But  the  safe-blower  is, 
as  a  rule,  not  murderous  and  requires  extensive  mechan- 
ical knowledge.      Highwaymen  are  usually  hoodlums. 

Case  XIX  is  a  safe-blower  now  serving  his  third  term 
in  the  penitentiary  at  Joliet.  He  was  selected  for  me 
by  the  physician  and  the  chief  supervisor,  the  latter 
having  been  an  officer  in  the  penitentiary  for  over  twenty 


CASE  XIX. 


years.     These  officers  regard  this  prisoner  as  one  of  the 
brainiest  and  smartest  now  in  the  prison. 

The  examination  was  strictly  private.  After  explain- 
ing to  a  certain  extent  the  object  of  my  visit  and  prom- 
ising secrecy  of  name,  cigars  were  lighted  and  a  conver- 
sation launched.     He  is  now  46  years  of  age,  but  his  first 


82  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

experience  in  the  penitentiary  life  was  at  19  years  of  a^e. 
He  is  rather  tall,  but  lean  in  form,  with  hair  turned  half 
gray.  He  is  fluent  in  speech,  with  a  smooth  and  rather 
soft  voice  and  a  perfectly  self-possessed  bearing,  which 
betrays  the  deliberative  habit  of  mind.  He  was  never 
married. 

He  was  born  in  New  Hampshire,  where  his  father  was 
a  clockmaker,  having  a  comfortable  home,  surrounded 
by  orchards  they  owned.  At  1 1  years  of  age  the  family 
moved  to  Chicago,  his  father  having  died  nine  years 
before. 

He  had  not  been  in  Chicago  many  months  when  the 
celebrated  Dwight  L.  Moody  conducted  him  to  the 
police  station  for  disorderly  conduct  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  old  Moody  Church.  He  was  discharged  in  half  an 
hour.  He  attended  a  public  school  more  or  less  until 
14  years  of  age  and  also  a  Methodist  Sunday-school  for 
about  a  year,  but  ''didn't  believe  anything  in  it."  From 
14  to  19  years  of  age  he  worked  partly  in  a  grocery  and 
partly  at  printing. 

At  19  he  was  arrested  in  a  saloon  in  the  old  North 
Side  market  place  in  company  with  another  young  man, 
charged  with  stealing  a  watch,  the  pawn  ticket  for  which 
was  found  in  his  possession,  but  which  he  claims  he  in- 
nocently received  from  an  associate  who,  he  says,  was 
also  perfectly  innocent  in  the  matter.  For  this  he  was 
sentenced  to  five  years  in  the  penitentiary,  serving  three 
years  and  eleven  months. 

In  the  prison  he  learned  cigar-making,  and  after  his 
release  he  applied  for  a  job  of  packing  cigars  for  a  cigar- 


CASE   XIX.  83 

maker  in  quest  of  help.  His  application  seemed  prom- 
ising until  he  told  where  he  learned  the  trade.  Althoug^h 
he  offered  to  work  two  weeks  on  trial  for  nothing  if  he 
proved  unsatisfactory  his  offer  was  declined.  Until  his 
next  arrest  he  worked  at  odd  jobs  of  printing. 

His  second  arrest  was  a  year  later,  for  being  an  accom- 
plice in  an  attempted  burglary,  the  two  other  confeder- 
ates escaping  in  a  wagon  they  had  secured  to  carry  off 
the  booty.  There  was  no  evidence  against  him  except 
that  he  was  across  the  street  at  the  time  and  was  known 
to  be  an  associate  of  the  other  two,  with  whom  he  was 
in  reality  in  league. 

He  was  given  to  understand  that  if  he  pleaded  guilty 
he  would  be  discharged.  He  did  so,  but  the  Judge,  he 
claims,  broke  faith  with  him  and  sentenced  him  to  seven 
years  in  the  penitentiary.  But  the  detective  in  the  case 
secured  his  pardon  within  ten  months. 

After  his  release  from  prison  this  time,  an  old  school- 
mate loaned  him  money  to  open  a  cigar  store,  in  which 
he  did  well  for  six  months,  when  a  man  whom  he  cm- 
ployed  as  an  outdoor  agent  took  out  a  number  of  un- 
stamped boxes,  and  this  caused  the  confiscation  of  all  his 
goods  by  the  United  States  Government.  He  afterwards 
found  reason  to  believe  it  was  a  "put-up  job"  by  a 
detective. 

"Later  on  he  was  six  months  in  the  beer  pump  busi- 
ness, but  since  1877  he  has  been  exclusively  a  burglar 
and  a  safe-blower,  at  times  securing  a  few  thousand 
dollars  by  such  operations.  He  has  usually  had  an  ac- 
complice,   and    says   he  has  had   a   ''pretty   good  time 


84  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

mostly,"  and  only  committing  burglary  when  funds  get 
low. 

He  is  now  serving  an  eight-year  sentence  for  safe- 
blowing  in  an  outside  town,  and  expects  his  liberty  next 
September.  He  says  he  knows  burglary  is  wrong,  but 
thinks  the  only  difference  between  himself  and  a  com- 
mercial knave  is  that  he  is  out  and  out  a  robber.  He 
says  he  feels  he  would  like  to  go  off  by  himself  to  raise 
vegetables  or  poultry  so  that  he  could  get  a  chance  to 
rest  his  mind  and  think  right. 

He  has  always  regarded  the  Bible  as  a  made-up  story, 
and  does  not  believe  in  future  punishment,  although  he 
thinks  there  may  be  a  future  state.  He  volunteered  the 
statement  that  Christians  were  the  best  people,  the  most 
charitable,  and  the  most  reliable.  His  parents  were 
Unitarians,  but  his  mother  was  not  particularly  religious. 
He  has  a  liking  for  scientific  reading,  such  as  Tyndall's 
works. 

His  mother  died  two  years  ago  at  the  age  of  78,  and 
he  is  the  next  to  the  youngest  of  nine  children.  All  his 
family  have  been  remarkably  healthy.  He  has  never  been 
sick,  except  with  pneumonia  in  prison  three  years  ago. 
His  physical  condition  now  is  good,  but  his  general  tone 
has  evidently  suffered  from  his  career  in  prison  experience. 
He  has  all  the  common  vices;  began  drinking  when  young. 

THE    ANALYSIS. 

(i)     Early  loss  of  paternal  care. 

(2)  Indifferent  care  by  widowed  mother  with  a 
large  family. 


CASE  XX.  85 

(3)  Weak  or  defective  religious  and  moral  instruction. 

(4)  Bad  home  locality  and  associates  when  a  lad. 

(5)  Prison  record  cripples  effort  to  secure  work,  and 
thus  discourages. 

(6)  More  imprisonment  for   imperfect  cause  hardens 
him  to  society;  consequently. 

(7)  A  superior  mentality  with   a  blurred  conscience 
confirmed  in  crime. 

(8)  Present  mental  unrest — moral  light  wished  by  him. 


Case  XX.  Perry  Bennett  is  a  lad  of  19  years  of  age, 
of  short,  slender  form,  and  of  a  quiet  retiring  demeanor. 
Is  said  to  come  from  a  respectable  family.  Being  an 
accomplished  pianist  one  of  his  schemes  was  to  play 
music  agent  among  private  residences,  when  he  would 
make  his  observations  for  a  night  visit,  making  a  note  of 
the  door  lock,  and,  if  possible,  securing  a  wax  cast  of 
the  key. 

About  three  years  ago  he  was  caught  boring  a  hole 
over  the  lock  of  the  basement  door  of  a  saloon  for  the 
purpose  of  turning  the  key.  At  another  time  he  entered 
the  Holy  Name  Cathedral  to  steal  the  silver.  But  to  his 
great  surprise  as  soon  as  he  stepped  upon  the  altar  the 
cathedral  blazed  forth  its  electric  lights,  and  simultan- 
eously caused  a  bell  to  ring  in  the  priest's  residence  ad- 
joining. In  a  moment  a  priest  entered,  and  he  was 
captured. 

He  was  sent  to  the  Pontiac  Reformatory,  but  escaped 
soon   after    incarceration,    but    was    captured    within    a 


S6 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


month.  On  one  occasion  while  he  was  handcuffed  to 
another  prisoner  and  awaiting  transportation  he  secured 
permission  to  pick  up  a  hairpin  lying  near  him  on  the 
floor,  ostensibly  to  use  in  his  ear.  With  the  hairpin  he 
unlocked  his  handcuff,  but  did  not  release  himself  until 


CASE  XX. 

the   moment  he  should    have    stepped    into   the  police 
wagon,  when  he  made  good  his  escape. 

He  is  now  in  a  Missouri  penitentiary,  and  is  wanted 
in  numerous  cities.  His  associations  have  always  been 
with  the  respectable  class. 


Case  XXI.      Baron  Shinburn,  alias  Maxmillian  Shin- 
burn,  is  called  the  king  of  burglars  by  Mr.  Pinkerton, 


CASE  XXI. 


^7 


who  is  the   agent  for   * '  The   American  Bankers'  Asso- 
ciation." 

By  the  burglary  of  banks  in  America  he  secured  over 
$1,000,000,  then  went  to  Belgium  and  started  a  silk 
factory,  and  later  he  secured  the  title  of  Baron.   Through 


CASE  XXI. 


horse-racing  he  soon  lost  all,  and  returned  to  America  to 
his  old  ways.     He  is  now  in  the  Auburn  penitentiary. 

He  is  56  years  of  age,  and   a   German  by  birth.      He 
at  one  time  worked  in  a  lock  factory. 


88 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


CASE  XXI— A  PROFESSIONAL  "  BANK  SNEAK." 
Forty-eight  years  of  age.     On  on3  occasion  he  succeeded  in  stealing  $10,000  in  gold, 
has  served  sentences  in  Massachusetts,  Canada,  Pennsylvania, 
Minnesota  and  California. 


He 


CASES  XXII  AND  XXIII.  89 


CASES  XXII  AND  XXIII-TWO  UNRULY 
PRISONERS. 

At  a  recent  visit  to  a  penitentiary  I  requested  the  dep- 
uty warden  (who  has  been  an  officer  in  the  penitentiary  for 
over  twenty  years)  to  pick  out  two  prisoners  who,  in  his 
opinion,  were  the  hardest  cases  in  the  penitentiary. 

Case  XXII.  One  case  he  selected  was  a  man  about 
33  years  of  age,  a  farmer,  unmarried,  and  sentenced  for 
I  5  years  for  an  alleged  attempt  to  kill  a  sister  in  a  family 
quarrel.  He  was,  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  under  disci- 
pline for  some  disorderly  conduct  in  the  prison,  as  he  was 
trailing  a  heavy  iron  ball  attached  by  a  chain  to  one  of 
his  ankles.  His  face  features  were  pale  and  thin,  his  eyes 
keen,  and  he  had  a  peculiar  expression  and  mannerism 
which  betokened  a  subtle  neurotic  condition  with  great 
irritability  of  temper.  He  was  evidently  living  on  the 
borderland  cf  insanity  from  inbred  qualities,  that  is  to 
say,  he  is  not  so  bad  in  his  moral  disposition  as  he  is 
morbid  in  his  physical  fibre — his  brain  reactions. 

Case  XXIII.  The  other  case  was  a  man  of  45  years 
of  age  and  unmarried.  He  had  previously  been  a  con- 
vict in  the  same  prison,  and  is  now  in  for  life  for  assault 
and  robbery.  Like  the  other  prisoner,  he  had  a  peculiar 
appearance,  but  due  chiefly  to  the  peculiar  ashy  white 
skin,  which  was  unusually  dry  and  roughened  on  his  face 
and  neck  and  indicating  a  centric  neurosis — a  morbid 
brain.      He  is  a  type  of  the  lowest  grade  of  the  fiendish 


90 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


and  cold-blooded  criminal,  having  the  appearance  of 
sanity.  He  was  never  higher  than  a  common  laborer. 
His  father  died  in  the  w^ar,  and  he  left  his  mother  to 
become  a  cowboy  in  the  far  West  when  he  was  26  years 
of  age.  He  went  to  school  some  when  a  lad,  but  has 
since  never  read  a  book  and  seldom  a   newspaper.     He 


CASE  XXIII. 

is  the  oldest  of  four  brothers  and  three  sisters.  Says 
he  was  told  his  mother  died  of  a  broken  heart  twelve 
years  ago.  Says  he  usually  worked  in  stables  or  serv- 
ing masons  or  bricklayers,  but  when  out  of  work  and 
money  he  was,  he  says,  too  proud  to  beg  and  had  to 
rob.  For  his  last  crime  he  armed  himself  with  a 
wooden    club,   then    entered    the    small  workshop    of  a 


CASES  XXII  AND  XXIII.  9 1 

stranger,  to  whom  he  dealt  a  stunning  blow  on  the  head, 
when  he  robbed  him  of  his  watch  and  money — a  few 
dollars.  As  showing  something  of  his  peculiar  mental 
condition,  a  severe  self-inflicted  injury  to  hisrigh  foot  was 
in  evidence.  He  had  recently  been  confined  in  a  soli- 
tary cell  with  his  hands  fastened  through  the  bars  of  the 
cell  door  for  a  certain  number  of  hours  daily,  a  disci- 
pline intended  to  bring  the  most  unruly  prisoners  to  their 
senses.  The  only  article  of  furniture  in  the  cell  was  a 
board  to  sleep  on,  which  he  used  to  hammer  his  foot,  for 
the  purpose,  he  says,  of  wounding  it  so  as  to  create  sym- 
pathy or  pity  for  him  in  the  hearts  of  the  prison  officers. 
But  in  this  it  seems  to  have  proven  a  failure. 

I  did  not  make  a  thorough  examination  of  these  two  pris- 
oners, as  my  object  was  simply  to  see  what  an  intelligent 
and  experienced  prison  official  regarded  as  the  worst  crim- 
inals— the  hardest  cases.  In  my  opinion,  both  of  these 
prisoners  are  half  insane  (to  speak  roughly)  and  quite 
unlike  the  pure  out-and-out  or  professional  criminal 
whose  policy  and  behavior  are  deliberately  shaped  to 
gain  the  good  will  of  prison  officials. 


92 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


Brain  of  Perudinacz,  a  Servian  peasant.  Killed  his  son  who  had  ad- 
vised him  to  live  temperately.  He  was  60  years  of  age. — {From  Prof. 
Benedikt,  of  Vienna.) 


CRIMES  CAUSE  AND  CUKE.  93 


CRIME'S  CAUSE  AND  CURE. 

In  preceding  articles  criminal  types  have  been  described 
which  are  representative  in  the  most  common  conditions 
of  the  groups  they  illustrate.  Each  case  has  been  carefully 
depicted  after  a  thorough  examination,  which  in  most  cases 
was  covered  by  an  interview  with  that  veteran  and  astute 
detective,  Andy  Rohan,  who  represents  the  police  depart- 
ment at  the  state's  attorney's  office.  As  I  shall  here  only 
treat  the  subject  in  a  suggestive  and  fragmentary  man- 
ner, I  must  be  excused  for  the  appearance  of  dogmatic 
brevity. 

The  cause  of  crime  is  fundamentally  a  question  of 
heredity,  environment,  and  purpose  in  life,  and  when 
these  are  considered  remedial  measures  become  evident. 
/Heredity,  as  I  vie^w^-it,  is  but  another  name  for  envir- 
onment in  the  earliest  stage  of  the  individual's  existence 
— the  inweaving,  so  to  speak,  of  vital  force  during  the 
embryonic  mutations  of  development  and  imparting 
organic  stability  in  varied  degrees.  It  does  more:  The 
physiological  factors  of  parental  peculiarities  (parts  of 
the  personal  equation)  become  in  one  way  or  another 
anatomical  in  the  child. 

Infinitely  more  sensitive  is  the  plastic  tissue  of  the 
embryo  than  is  the  wax  cylinder  of  a  phonograph,  so 
that  thoughts  and  impressions,  both  conscious  and 
subsconscious  -^-  perceived    and    unperceived  —  through 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


94  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

their  subtle  physiologic  correlatives,  must  give  results 
whicli  gross  conditions  do  no  explain. 

Thus,  strictly  speaking,  nothing  is  inherited,  as  being 
directly  transmitted,  except  specie  characteristics,  w^hich 
are  just  as  unalterable  as  are  any  laws  of  nature  in  the 
evolution  of  a  definite  purpose — the  progress  of  a  coor- 
dinate plan. 

The  axiorrr  that  precisely  the  same  result  can  only  fol- 
low precisely  the  same  conditions  applies  equali^  to 
physiology  and  physics.  Thus  the  molding  factors\of 
an  inferior  mother  by  the  bettering  influences  of  a  supe- 
rior father,  or  other  associations,  may  impart  to  her 
progeny  qualities  higher  than  her  own  level,  and  vice 
versa.  And  thus  it  is  that  in  the  most  plastic  stage  of 
existence  the  foundations  of  vitality  are  laid,  the  power 
to  survive  implanted,  likeness  fashioned,  bent  or  talent 
given. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  mass  is  not  strength  and 
that  resemblance  is  not  reality.  In  the  vito-chemical 
process  of  embryonic  physiology,  parental  energies  are 
both  transmuted  and  transposed  in  the  evolution  of  the 
compromise  offspring,  giving  to  it  stability  and  form,  so 
that,  all  things  considered,  what  we  call  hereditary  devi- 
ations from  the  normal  are  simply  the  products  of  the 
environment  of  the  individual  prior  to  the  age  of  his 
deliberate  choice. 

At  birth  a  inew  environment  is  [added,  the  sense$  are 
awakened  by  the  rhythmic  variations  of  the  unii^ersal 
forces,  such  as  heat,  light,  sound,  etc.,  with  pain  to  point 
to  danger.      Here  education  begins — in  the  cradle — with 


crime's  cause  and  cure.  95 

rational  or  indifferent  care,  the  care  that  in  one  way  or 
another  makes  "  the  child  the  father  to  the  man."  la  a 
vague  way  reasoning  begins  early  in  the  infant,  and  at  two 
years  from  birth  a  child  has  been  known  to  have  acquired 
475  words,  or  as  many  ideas  of  matter  and  motion. 
Nursery  lies  and  fictitious  rhymes  engender  fear,  distrust, 
and  later  on,  deception,  with  false  pride,  the  mother  of 
most  crime.  From  this  springs  much  of  the  prevailing 
egotism  of  the  present  day,  which  would  induce  most 
men  to  steal  rather  ^an  beg.  And  just  as  in  midlife 
tumors  arise  from  ei^ibryonic  flaws,  so  the  unforeseen 
crime  of  manhood  nmy  have  been  thoughtlessly  coached 
in  the  infant's  cradlye.  In  moral  character  as  with  organic 
form — 

"  Like  genders  like;  potatoes  tatoes  breed; 

Uncourt^y  cabbage  springs  from  cabbage  seed." 

f~t     I  --.     '■^■-         "P-f'^^  -ty(  'r: 

But  this  does  not  imply  that  delinquency  in  the  child 
shall  be  precisely  the  same  in  form  as  that  of  a  parent,  for 
often  it  is/quite  different,  just  as  different  forces  co-oper- 
ating produce  a  result  more  or  less  different  from  any  one 
of  the  agencies  operating. 

Observation  demonstrates  that  it  is  no  misfortune  to 
be  born  poor,  but  it  is  a  great  misfortune  to  be  born 
badly  and  reared  unwisely.  The  child,  as  an  involun- 
tary visitor  to  this  mundane  sphere,  is  nothing  more  and 
and  nothing  less  than  its  environment — all  that  goes  to 
comprise  parental  personalities,  both  physical  and  moral. 
From  these  the  infant  potentialities — its  capacities  and 
proclivities — are   derived,  and  which   bend,  broaden,   or 


96  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

break  to  a  more  extended  environment.  Thus,  when 
reason  reaches  the  stage  of  general  principles — the  why 
and  wherefore  of  life  and  its  relations — the  moral  eye  of 
the  child  may  be  blurred  and  its  instincts  perverted  by  a 
vicious  environment — an  environment  which  misdirects 
thought  and  installs  habits  which  preclude  the  free  and 
natural  acquisition  of  moral  light,  of  purpose  and  duty. 

The  normally  assured  intuitions  are  a  prerequisite  and 
foundation  for  all  rational  conduct — conduct  which  is  at 
once  conservative,  progressive,  and  satisfying  in  purpose. 
This  early  aborting  or  blurring  of  conscience  is  made 
evident  by  a  careful  examination  of  boy  "repeaters," 
though  not  in  all  cases,  for  some  are  simply  moral  pare- 
tics who  succumb  to  the  force  of  particular  circumstances 
against  the  dictates  of  conscience,  which  is  sometimes 
quite  distinct  in  them. 

Among  the  most  constant  conditions  in  the  history  of 
' '  repeater  "  criminals  is  the  early  loss  of  one  or  both  par- 
ents. This  factor  exists  in  over  two-thirds  of  all  such  cases, 
and  in  almost  all  of  the  many  cases  I  have  examined  I 
have  found  evidence  of  either  neurotic  o^Mudicious  par- 
entage. But  it  would  seem  that  the  ^^HjUpy  even  an 
indifferent  parent  is  better  than  none  a^^^where  there 
is  nothing  to  substitute. 

If  a  parent,  especially  a  father,  is  not  a  total  wreck  he 
will  usually  try  to  have  his  child  do  better  than  himself, 
and  not  infrequently  his  own  misconduct  but  serves  the 
child  as  an  illustration  and  object  lesson  rather  than  an 
example  to  follow.  In  such  cases  the  child  is  more  influ- 
enced  by   the  benign   outside   agencies,    and  thus   may 


CRIMES  CAUSE  AND  CURE.  97 

develop  into  a  striking  contrast  to  its  parent  and  become 
a  model  citizen. 

As  regards  the   heredity  of   criminality,  as   such,  the 
Australian  colony  of   former  criminals  and  their  children 
is   a   complete   answer   in   the   negative,  for  it  is  a  well-    ' 
known  fact  that  it  constitutes  a  community  which  is  as 
well  behaved  as  any  other  in  the  state. 

As  nature  has  planted  with  every  organ  or  talent  a 
desire  for  its  use,  so  the  instincts  of  children  call  for 
exercise  of  all  kinds.  Where  considerate  care  is  denied 
the  child  perversions  of  instinct  arise  with  one  evil  beget- 
ting another.  A  child  carefully  studied  will  evince  its 
talents  by  its  procHvities,  and  if  favored  within  conserva- 
tive limits  it  will  develop  to  its  highest  satisfactionjand 
for  the  best  service  to  society.  Much  of  the  failure  of 
life  is  due  to  inaptness  for  the  occupation  enforced  or 
coerced  upon  the  individual. 

Another  of  the  most  frequent  conditions  observed  in 
the  history  of  the  criminal  is  bad  outside  associatiojos^-^ 
Even  children  of  orderly  families  succumb  to  this  power 
when  weak  in  moral  precept  and  home  example.  The 
child  and  the  average  mortal  are  much^iven  to  imitation, 
which  is  a  product  of  the  communal  tendency  engendered 
in  the  absence  of  original  self-thought.  To  a  certain 
extent  the  habit  is  imposed  by  civilization. 

Note  the  children  of  parents  who  taught  and  trained 
them  with  the  kindness  they  require  and  have  a  right  to 
receive,  along  lines  of  common  sense  and  Christian  pur- 
pose, with  no  whipping  or  show  of  distemper,  and  there 
you  will  not  only  find  manifested  the  strong  family  tie  of 


98  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

love  and  affection,  but  a  character  on  which  surrounding 
evils  have  little  effect  except  that  of  illustration — that  of 
repugnance. 

It  is  often  said  that  parents  have  tried  "everything" 
to  cure  a  child  of  evil  propensities.  But  how  have  they 
-trie^.?  It  is  my  observation,  as  it  is  the  observation  of 
authors  of  the  greatest  acumen  and  experience,  that  rhost 
commonly,  habitual  criminals  are  the  offspring  of  neurotic 
parents,  and  quite  frequently,  hysterical  mothers.  And  just 
as  men  of  mark  and  genius  are  usually  the  offspring  of 
parents  with  strong  characters,  so  the  strays  and  under- 
brush of  society  are  most  commonly  found  to  be  the 
offspring  of  weak,  vacillating,  hysterical  or  neglectful 
mothers. 

Next  to  family  evils  in  their  influence  are  the  evils  of 
the  public  school  system,  which  too  often  have  unskilled, 
and,  in  some  way,  distorted  teachers,  who  exact  alike 
from  children  of  unequal  energy  and  unequal  aptness, 
and  who  have  to  sit  restively  in  seats  which  have  neither 
fitness  to  their  heights  nor  their  forms.  Under  the  influence 
of  fear  or  undue  emulation  the  child  will  silently  endure 
much  more  than  is  good  for  it.  Between  the  exactions 
of  the  schoolroom  and  the  privations  of  home  the  lot  of 
tlie  city  child  is  usually  hard  and  often  destructive  to  its 
future  well  being. 

By  the  present  school  system,  nervous  troubles  are 
often  produced  and  oftener  aggravated  by  insidious  evils. 
As  indicating  something  of  the  extent  of  child  damage  by 
school  exactions,  it  has  been  found  in  some  city  schools 
that  over  50  per  cent,  of  advanced  scholars  had  defective 


crime's  cause  and  cure.  99 


eyesight,  while  countty  school  children  were  almost 
entirely  free  from  such  defects.  But  to  insure  a  thorough 
reform  a  physician  should  be  attached  to  every  school  to 
examine  and  classify  all  pupils,  place  teachers  fitly,  and 
in  a  general  way  advise.  Such  evils  as  I  have  mentioned 
have  a  demoralizing  influence  much  beyond  their  appear- 
ance, for  overtaxation  of  energy  begets  a  nervous  irrita- 
bility with  its  moral  correlative — instability  of  disposi- 
tion. The  commonness  of  evils  do  not  make  them  normal 
conditions.  \  . 

While  the  public  school  system  is  not  an  unmitigated 
blessing,  the  evils  of  organized  society  are  more  marked 
in  other  directions.  Dark  and  filthy  streets  do  not  sug- 
gest personal  cleanliness  nor  inspire  respect  for  law  and 
order  in  those  most  in  need  of  good  example — those  who 
are  weak  in  character  and  blind  to  the  main  object  of 
life.  Nor  are  exhibitions  of  official  grabbing  and  dishon- 
esty exemplary  of  good,  to  say  nothing  about  the  hypoc- 
risy of  a  state  which  acknowledges  God  by  engaging  a 
chaplain  and  winks  at  wily  ways. 

The  police  force  has  to  deal  with  but  a  small  propor- 
tion of  crime,  as  it  cannot  reach  beyond  its  powers  and 
its  own  intellectual  level,  and  thus  it  is  left  to  deal  mostly 
with  creatures  of  unfortunate  birth  and  education,  and 
who  simply  fall  short  of  the  ethical  standard  of  the  soci- 
ety which  directly  and  indirectly  is  largely  responsible 
for  the  very  delinquencies  it  condemns.  That  attitude  of 
society  which  treats  the  criminal  as  a  sort  of  wild  animal, 
only  to  be  caged  and  farther  brutalized,  is  itself  a  criminal 
attitude  which  has  brought  more  expense  and  less  security. 


lOO  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

How  can  society  expect  ^ood  from  evil,  or  love  for 
hatred?  As  the  whole  is  no  better  than  the  sum  of  its 
parts,  it  is  evident  that  the  greatest  good  to  the  individ- 
ual is  the  greatest  good  to  society  and  that  our  present 
system  of  treating  the  criminal  only  makes  from  bad  to 
worse.  We  talk  about  justice  and  punishment.  But 
who  can  administer  justice  in  the  form  of  punishment  ? 
"An  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth  "  might  be  an 
even  exchange  between  two  demons  with  equal  degrees 
of  malice  towards  each  other. 

But  do  two  wrongs  make  a  right  ?  And  where  is  the 
even  exchange  or  the  reparation  for  a  crime,  in  flinging 
the  criminal  into  prison  for  a  fixed  period  or  for  life,  to 
be  harnessed  like  a  brute  and  often  bullied  by  officials  no 
better  than  himself  ?  In  the  scales  of  justice,  if  such 
could  be  found,  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  often 
more  merit  exists  in  the  poor  wretch  we  have  helped  to 
make  and  hanged  than  in  the  inhabitants  of  some  of  our 
princely  palaces. 

For  much  the  same  reason  that  great  men  (as  differing 
from  good  men)  are  often  not  responsible  for  their  great- 
ness, criminals  are  very  often  not  responsible  for  their 
crimes.  The  abnormal  is  as  natural  as  the  normal,  just 
as  decay  is  as  natural  as  growth.  What  is  attractive  to 
one  is  not  attractive  to  another,  because  they  have  not 
the  same  incentive,  the  same  criterion — the  same  moral 
view.  A  pure  minded,  unselfish  person  is  commonly 
regarded  as  a  mild  sort  of  lunatic.  Look  at  present  day 
politics! 

There  is   just  as  much  sense  in  kicking  the  rock  we 


CRIMES  CAUSE  AND  CURE. 


lOI 


Stumble  on  as  there  is  in  punishing  for  a  crime.  The 
criminal,  if  such  he  be,  is  no  better,  but  rather  made 
worse,  and  if  we  do  not  exterminate  or  cure,  we  only  tem- 
porize with  the  evil.  A  large  proportion  of  discharged 
•prisoners  become  *' repeaters"  simply  from  the  fac^  that 
they  do  not  have  a  fair  chance  to  become  anything  else, 
or  because  they  are  in  no  way  reformed. 

As  a  preventive  of  crime  punishment  is  simply  a  noto- 
rious failure.  It  reforms  neither  child  nor  man,  if  they 
are  in  need  of  reform,  though  it  is  often  an  incident  along 
the  line,  and  if  they  are  not  in  need  of  reform,  they  can 
atone  for  their  acts  in  a  rational  way.  He  who  is  incapa- 
ble of  reform  is  simply  an  irresponsible  being.. 

BFf  the  Tact  Ts  the  ihcapaYity  lies  in  our  metfiods.  The 
penalties  of  Nature  are  all  \n  the  line  of  remAdy  when 
properly  considered.  God  hates  no  one^ — for  hatred  is  a 
condition  V)f  personal  imperfection.  All  thingsV^onsid- 
ered,  society  is  invariably  the  Ibser  by  the  system\of  im- 
prisonment Rurely  for  the  saka  of  punishment,  and  no 
wrong  is  everXmade  right  by  it.  \  Our  system  dealsXwith 
the  crime  rathW  than  the  criminal,  ignoring  the  factVhat 
all  men  are  only  equal  before  God,  since  it  requires\  an 
all-seing  eye  to\place  and  measure  responsibility,  ev^n 
when  it  is  knownWho  did  the  act.  \  We  hang  alike  him 
who  has  a  blurrkd  conscience,  perhaps  the  fate  of  his 
birth,  and  him  who^uffers  from  the  w6^kness  of  the  flesh, 
as  is  the  old  song: 

The  hot\est  horse  will  oft  go  cooV 

The  CCTolest  will  show  fire; 
The  friar  will  often  play  the  fool, 

The  fool  will  play  the  friar. 


I02  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

The  cases  I  have  described  in  previous  articles  revealed 
the  great  diyersity  in  the  iiwital,  moral,  andN^hysical 
condition  of  oar  so-called  criminals.  Thus  whileSsociety 
must  have  lawk  to  secure  order\it  should  excluae  the 
delinquent  only  tQ  correct  and  restore  them. 

The  severest  and  only  just  penalty  that  can  be 
inflicted  on  any  criminal  is  a  full  realization  of  the  nature 
of  his  crime,  which  involves  a  reform  of  his  character. 
This  can  only  be  secured  by  education — an  education  for 
moral  light,  right  relationship,  first  principles.  In  other 
words,  it  is  a  religious  question,  view  it  as  you  may.  A 
satisfying  final  purpose  must  be  found  in  order  to  insure 
right  character  and  a  desire  for  the  proper  conduct.  Not- 
withstanding all  the  facts  of  degeneracy  and  their  deprav- 
ing and  crippling  moral  effects,  the  power  of  the  mind  over 
the  body  needs  no  demonstration  to  any  ordinary  observer. 
Ideas  rule  the  world,  and  the  most  religious  have  the 
most  force,  right  or  wrong. 

Thus,  while  physical  health  is  a  question  of  conduct, 
real  character  is  a  question  of  belief.  But  belief  is 
brought  about  by  the  presentation  of  ideas  of  a  certain 
nature,  number,  and  order,  which  must  be  adjusted  to 
individual  needs.  When  we  see  what  study  and  care  can 
do  for  the  mute,  the  blind,  the  imbecile,  and  the  idiot, 
there  need  be  no  discouragement  about  finding  ways  and 
means  to  meet  the  needs  of  those  who  are  vastly  more 
amenable  to  remedial  measures. 

The  responsibility  of  the  State  in  the  treatment  of 
those  it  deprives  of  liberty  is  a  great  responsibility,  car- 
rying with  its  wrong  a  reflex  curse  in  many  fold  measure. 


CRIME  S  CAUSE  AND  CURE. 


103 


The  indeterminate  sentence  law  is  a  step  in  the  right 
direction — the  scientific  direction — but  it  requires  a 
scientific  appHcation  to  a  radically  reformed  system 
before  it  will  operate  to  advantage  all  around. 

In  conclusion,  I  must  say  that  the  whole  treatment  of 
prisoners,!  guilty  or  innocent,  from  the\time  of  arnest  to 
the  time  bf  trial,  which  \s  sometimes Vnany  monMis,  is 
nothing  snort  of  being  a  barbarous  disgrkce  to  a  civilized 
State.  HAw  long  will  those  who  are  in\position  to  act 
and  those  wno  ought  to  vote\  be  chargeable^  with  the  crime 
or  disease  o^continued  indifference  to  the  wrongs  in\our 
present  police  system  ? 


iour^^^ 


104  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


A  SUGGESTION  ON  PRISON  TREATMENT. 

While  it  is  generally  supposed  that  the  pulpit  is  pro- 
claiming less  of  hell  than  ever,  it  is  evident  that  the 
State  quite  firmly  believes  in  some  such  doctrine,  while 
it  ignores  the  law  of  love.  This  is  apparent  by  the  way 
it  treats  delinquent  members  of  society—  its  crippling, 
hardening  and  brutalizing  process  which  it  calls  punish- 
ment in  the  name  of  justice.  It  does  not  seem  to  re- 
gard justice  as  a  question  of  exact  science  of  which  no 
mortal  can  know  enough  nor  have  the  wisdom  required 
to  administer  punishment  equitably  in  any  criminal  case. 
Nor  does  the  State  recognize  the  fact  that  the  scientific 
justice  of  the  Creator  unerringly  makes  hell  wherever 
there  is  desert,  no  matter  what  the  State  may  do.  The 
State  also  ignores  the  fact,  in  its  methods,  that  aside 
from  the  prosecution  and  persecution  of  many  innocent 
citizens,  it  does  a  great  injury  to  society  in  manufactur- 
ing a  large  number  of  habitual  enemies  by  its  prison 
treatment,  for  sooner  or  later  most  of  its  prisoners  re- 
turn to  freedom,  a  very  large  proportion  of  which  again 
return  to  prison.  It  is  a  notorious  fact  that  an  ex- 
prisoner  is  commonly  regarded  by  the  police  as  a  '*  sus- 
pect "  and  a  good  subject  for  prey  when  nobody  else  can 
be  found.  And  this  not  without  some  reason — the  reason 
above  stated. 

Present   state  treatment^  from  police  arrest  to  prison 


A  SUGGESTION  ON  PRISON  TREATMENT.  IO5 

discharge  is  the  greatest  cause  of  the  crime  which  is 
brought  to  public  notice. 

It  is  quite  evident  to  me,  at  least,  that  the  State 
should  abandon  the  idea  of  punishment,  as  such,  and 
adopt  measures  more  just  to  society  at  large,  by  turning 
out  of  its  prisons  better  citizens  than  they  receive. 

The  normally  disposed  individual,  the  individual  who 
has  a  correct  view^  of  relationship,  so  far  as  it  goes  with 
him,  and  who  naturally  desires  to  conform  to  it  in  lines 
of  truth,  justice  and  economy,  becomes  an  object  of 
medical  interest  when  he  commits  a  crime.  But  the 
really  criminal  individual,  the  person  selfish  by  nature, 
who  has  no  regard  for  truth,  justice  or  economy  when  in 
conflict  with  his  desires,  presents  a  more  purely  psycho- 
logical problem  in  the  question  of  his  treatment. 

Thus,  professional  skill,  medical  and  psychological, 
should  be  called  into  service  in  classifying  and  indicating 
requirements  and  the  final  testing  of  attainments.  I 
need  hardly  say  that  as  regards  the  personnel  of  prison 
officers,  no  man  should  be  employed  to  be  in  habitual 
contact  with  prisoners  who  is  not  imbued  with  Christian 
(mark  the  word)  principles,  and  not  merely  the  vague 
notions  called  humanitarian.  Personal  example  is  a 
most  important  matter,  and  the  best  disciplinarian,  as  a 
rule,  is  continuously  manifested  good- will. 

Many  of  the  younger  men  who  are  sent  to  the  peniten- 
tiary at  Joliet  (for  example)  have  learned  no  trade  and  have 
no  opportunity  of  learning  any  there,  for  they  are  put  to 
special  jobs  and  kept  at  them,  such  as  special  work  on  a 
shoe    or    a   chair,    or    a  saddle,    and    as    they    become 


I06  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

more  useful  in  the  particular  simple  operations  they  are 
compelled  to  adopt,  they  are  kept  at  them  by  the  con- 
tractor who  pays  50  cents  or  so  a  day  to  the  State  for 
their  labor.  Such  profitless  monotony  is  a  serious  in- 
jury to  the  prisoners,  while  it  is  doubtless  a  great  snap 
for  the  contractors.  The  prisoner,  after  the  expiration 
of  his  five,  ten  or  fifteen  years  sentence  has  simply  had 
whatever  good  qualities  he  before  possessed,  ruined  for 
life.  There  is  nothing  to  appeal  to  the  good  that  is  in 
him,  or  to  soften  his  hardness  of  heart  when  that  exists. 
His  whole  existence  is  slavery  of  the  m^st  damnable 
kind.  He  has  nothing  to  live  for  there,  though  he  may 
still  have  some  sort  of  hope  that  slowly  and  silently 
clouds. 

But  should  there  be  ten  or  twenty  industries  of 
the  commonest  kind  from  which  he  can  choose  to  adopt 
one  as  a  trade  to  be  learned,  and  you  also  open  a  debit 
and  credit  account  with  him  from  the  start  with  the  un- 
derstanding that  his  cost  of  keep  will  be  charged  against 
him,  and  that  he  will  have  to  wipe  it  out  by  his  earnings 
and  proficiency,  and  after  which  a  certain  surplus  will 
be  credited  to  him  and  delivered  with  his  discharge,  you 
will  not  only  create  a  rational  incentive  for  the  exercise 
of  his  abilities,  but  by  degress  inspire  him  with  laud- 
able ambitions  and  a  normal  interest  in  life.  He  will 
not  only  leave  the  prison  more  or  less  morally,  but 
financially  protected  against  former  temptations,  and  will 
be  far  from  likely  to  become  a  repeater.  By  such  treat- 
ment you  may  almost  make  a  man  out  of  a  brute, 
supplemented  by  other  well  directed  special  educational, 


A  SUGGESTION  ON  PRISON  TREATMENT.  IO7 

moral  and  religious  agencies  for  which  you  have  now 
gained  his  sympathetic  interest  because  of  your  mani- 
fested interest  in  him. 

Finally,  I  repeat  that  only  the  Creator  can  and  does 
punish  every  criminal  justly,  while  the  State  by  attempt- 
ing to  punish  the  criminal  only  succeeds  in  punishing 
society  for  its  usurpation  of  a  prerogative  which  is 
strictly  one  of  Omnipotence.  Man  is  but  a  creature, 
and  for  that  reason,  usurpation  (selfness)  is  the  funda- 
mental element  in  every  real  crime. 


io8 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


THE  BRAIN. 


L.  H.— LEFT  HEMISPHERE. 


R.  H.— RIGHT  HEMISPHERE. 


THE  BRAIN  CENTRES. 


The  brain  is  the  tool  of  the  mind,  and  when  certain 
parts  of  it  are  diseased  or  defective,  the  mind  has  les- 
sened  or  lost   control  of  those  organs  which  have  their 


THE  BRAIN.  IO9 

nerve  centralizations  in  the  parts  affected.  This  is  shown 
by  many  post  inortem  examinations  on  persons  who  were 
previously  affected  in  one  or  more  functions  of  the  body; 
and  also  by  stimulating  or  irritating  certain  parts  of 
the  brain  of  living  lower  animals  and  observing  the 
effects. 

An  enfeeblement  or  defect  of  the  mind  is  due  to  a  de- 
fective condition  of  the  brain,  precluding  the  free  action 
of  the  mind,  and  death  is  simply  the  severance  of  all 
relations  between  mind  and  body. 

The  "localizations"  marked  in  the  above  figure  are  not 
always  affected  when  the  functions  or  the  organs  named 
are  affected;  but  as  a  rule,  when  these  particular  parts 
of  the  brain  are  found  diseased  the  organs  or  functions 
named  were  also  affected.  This  difference  is  explained 
by  the  fact  that  most  parts  of  the  brain  have  paths  of 
communication  with  other  near  and  remote  parts  of  the 
brain,  and  so  are  more  or  less  dependent  or  sympathetic. 
But  there  is  no  strict  line  of  separation  between  one 
"localization"  and  another,  so  that  it  is  more  correct  to 
regard  these  "localizations"  as  centralizations. 

The  mental  faculties  continue  free  in  action  with 
either  hemisphere  alone,  if  healthy.  Some  large,  slowly 
evolved  tumors  in  no  way  manifest  their  presence  owing 
to  the  gradual  adjustment  or  compensation  which  follows 
the  gradual  growth  of  the  tumor. 

Many  idiots  have  medium  and  even  large  sized  brains, 
and  differing  but  little  from  some  common  forms.  But 
owing  to  a  deficiency  in  the  number  and  quality  of  the 


I  lO  CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 

f  gray  matter  cells  and  also  a  deficiency  in  their  "associa- 
tion" or  connecting  fibres  of  the  brain,  due  to  an  embry- 
onic flaw,  causing  arrest  of  development,  the  mental 
faculties  are  narrowed  in  range  and  feeble  in  action. 
^  Some  few  idiots  are  *' gifted"  in  a  special  way,  for 
example,  "Blind  Tom"  the  musician.  Such  "gifts" 
are  presumably  the  effects  of  exclusiveness  induced  by 
an  inequality  of  defect  among  the  brain  centres. 

Dr.  W.  W.  Ireland  -reports  (Tuke's  Dictionary  of 
Psychological  Medicine)  the  case  of  a  girl  12  years  of 
age  with  a  brain  weighing  seven  ounces,  while  Dr. 
Levigne  reports  (Medical  Record,  June  22,  1895)  the 
brain  of  an  imbicile  which  weighed  70J  ounces. 

R.  H. — Right  Hemisphere;  L.  H. — Left  Hemisphere. 

THE  CONVOLUTIONS. 

Brain  convolutions  express  something  which  is  not  yet 

understood.     The  lines  in  the  figures  presented,  indicate 

the  fissures  where   the   convolutions   infold.      It  will  be 

\     seen    that    in   details   they  differ    in  every  brain,    non- 

\    criminal  as   well  as   criminal,  just   as  face  features  do. 

^    Quite    often    brains    of    non-criminal    persons    deviate 

\   greatly  from  the  ordinary  normal  type. 

I      The  general  outline  of  head  and   brain  may  be  racial 

I  or  national  in  type.    Some  barbarians  have  finely  formed 

heads  and  brains  corresponding. 

Prof.  Benedikt  regards  an  excess  of  fissures  in  the 
brain  as  a  fundamental  defect  and  common  in  criminals. 
But  he  regards  caime  as  resulting  from  the  mental  con- 


THE  BRAIN.  I  I  I 

dition  as  a  unit,  its  particular  form  of  expression  being 
determined  by  social  circumstances. 

It  will  also  be  observed  that  the  brain  is  comparatively 
rich  in  convolutions  in  the  sheep,  w^hich  is  an  animal 
noted  for  its  lack  of  mental  resources;  whereas,  the 
brain  of  the  beaver,  an  animal  noted  for  its  mental  re- 
sourcefulness, has  no  convolutions  whatever. 


Shinat 

Right  side  view  of  a  common  normal  brain, 
somewhat  to  show  relationship. — {From  Quain.) 


Parts   drawn  apart 


I  12 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


Left  side  view  of  the  brain  of  a  Venus  Hottentot.— (/^row  Debierre. 


Brain  of  Gauss,    the  celebrated  mathematician      Left  side  view. 
{From  Debierre.) 


THE  BRAIN. 


113 


Left  hemisphere  of  a  non-criminal  white  man.— {From  Leidy.) 


Left  hemisphere  of  a  non-criminal  black  man. — {From  Leidy.) 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


Brain  of  Maglenov,  a  Servian  who  murdered  a  relation  through  re- 
venge. Slightly  developed  intellect.  As  a  prisoner  he  was  good  na- 
tured.     He  was  40  years  of  age.  —  {From  Benedikt,) 


Brain  of  Faezuna,  a  Gypsy  and  confirmed  thief. —  (/"row  Bcnedikt  ) 


THE  BRAIN. 


115 


Brain  of  Madarasz,  a  Sclavonian,  habitual  thief.  He  was  finally 
condemned  for  burglary.  He  twice  escaped  from  prison.  He  was  43 
years  of  age  and  was  of  a  sweet  and  fawning  disposition  in  prison,  but 
treacherous  and  cowardly  towards  his  overseers. — {From  Benedikt .) 


CRIME  AND  CRIMINALS. 


THE  DEGENERATE  EAR. 

The  form  of  the  ear,  Hke  the  form  of  any  other  organ, 
indicates  something  of  the  potential  factor  of  ancestral 
origin,  while  its  degree  of  tonicity  indicates  an  active 
factor  in  the  individual's  condition.  Ear  forms  have  not 
yet  been  studied  sufficiently  to  impute,  with  certainty, 
any  particular  value  to  any  particular  form,  although 
some  forms  are  quite  frequently  observed  with  much  the 
same  associations.  Abnormal  forms,  of  any  kind,  at 
least  show  that  we  are  not  all  equally  talented  and  so 
not  equally  fitted  for  the  same  sphere  of  action.  Some 
people,  therefore,  as  naturally  go  down,  as  others 
naturally  go  up  under  the  same  exactions. 

But  the  ear  is  very  sensitive  to  emotion  as  it  is  bu( 
little  influenced  by  the  will,  and  thus  it  may  betray 
emotion  when  no  other  part  of  the  body  does. 


TYPES  OF  THE  COMMON  NORMAL  EAR. 


THE  DHGENERATE  EAR. 


117 


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APR  1  4  :^UU4 


*>0t-  29  1343 


FEB      4   1948 


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1952  LU 


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WAY  4     19B^ 


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LD  21-100m-7,'40  (6936s) 


